THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Acting on the fresh directive from the government, four women IPS officers in the special investigation team (SIT) constituted to probe allegations of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry, will directly interact with the people who have raised the allegations and record their statements. The women officers will head separate teams, each having a battery of women cops, that will probe the complaints. It has been decided that the male officers in the team will provide them with assistance. This decision was taken by the government after the inclusion of male officers in the SIT came under criticism from various quarters, including the Opposition.
Meanwhile, the seven-member special team will hold its maiden offline meeting here on Tuesday to discuss the next course of action. The police department has so far received over 14 complaints, mostly by third persons, seeking a probe into the allegations pertaining to sexual harassment of female artists. A highly-placed source told TNIE that in line with the government perspective, the SIT will not register cases suo motu, but will reach out to the aggrieved people, who have made public their allegations, including in cyber and social media platforms, and prompt them to register complaints.
“The members of the team will contact the people, who have raised the allegations. But the cases will be registered only if they are ready to give their statements and lodge complaints,” the source said. “One of the female artists, who had alleged that she was sexually abused in a shooting location, has already contacted a female IPS officer in the SIT and informed her reluctance to file a complaint. However, filing of a complaint by Bengali actor Sreelekha Mitra is a silver lining and that would encourage more people to approach the police,” the source added.
The source said the SIT would go through the complaints — filed by the victims as well as the third parties — and scrutinise their legal maintainability before launching a criminal investigation. The government on Sunday decided to form the seven-member team headed by South Zone IG G Sparjan Kumar to probe the allegations of sexual harassment, including the ones that were mentioned in the Justice Hema Committee report, in the film industry.
The other members of the team are Thiruvananthapuram Range DIG S Ajeetha Begum, Crime Branch SP Merin Joseph, Coastal Police AIG G Poonkuzhali, Kerala Police Academy assistant director Aishwarya Dongre, AIG Law and Order Ajith V and Crime Branch SP S Madhusoodanan. CB head ADGP H Venkatesh will monitor the proceedings.
The decision to form the special team was taken during a meeting of senior police officers convened by CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The massive uproar against the government’s inaction on the Hema report and the legal opinion they got prompted the government to constitute a special team.