Kochi: The Supreme Court today granted anticipatory bail to rape accused actor Siddique, media reports said.
A division bench had given interim anticipatory bail to Siddique on September 30 after the actor challenged Kerala High Court’s verdict rejecting his anticipatory bail plea on September 24.
The Supreme court directed Siddique to surrender his passport before the trial court and cooperate with the investigation. The Apex Court allowed the trial court to set other conditions for the anticipatory bail.
Siddique argued that the complaint was made after eight years in August 2024 on the alleged incident taking place in 2016.
His counsel argued that Siddique was an office bearer of the Association of Malayalam Movie Actors (AMMA) and the complainant was a member of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) with which AMMA had long standing differences.
The court asked why the accused did not go to the police or before the Justice Hema Committee setup by the Kerala Government to study alleged abuse of women actors in Malayalam film industry after the happening of the 2017 actor abuse case in which prominent Malayalam actor Dileep is an accused.
The counsel for Kerala suspected motive behind Siddique inviting the victim, a low profile actress, to watch the preview in 2016 when the complainant accused Siddique of abusing her.
The counsel argued that the publication of the Justice Hema Committee report in August 2024 gave the victim to disclose her experiences without fear.
The complainant’s counsel Vrinda Grover said that the actress was getting very little work as a “fallout” of raising her voice.
Grover claimed that Siddique who approached the complainant in 2014 by liking her photos and messaging her on social media. In 2016, the accused invited her for the preview and took her to the Mascot hotel where she was abused, he said.
Grover said that the publication of the Justice Hema Committee report and the Kerala High Court taking cognizance of the repott gave her the courage.
Kumar said that the custodial interrogation of the accused was necessary to get details about his social media accounts.
Kumar submitted that Siddique was not cooperating with the investigation and was destroying the evidence.
Kumar added that there are thirty FIRs filed by many other women actors and they are feeling demoralised because of the grant of protection to Siddique. Im October, Kerala police filed a status report opposing bail granted to Siddique on various grounds including that he is an extremely influential person in the industry.
SC grants anticipatory bail to Siddique
