Kochi: Actors Siddique and Mukesh, MLA, who were in the forefront of shielding actor Dileep in the 2017 actor attack case, are now running for cover from prosecution in rape charges, reports said.
Siddique is hiding from arrest, while the police have no inkling about his movement. Mukesh was arrested and released as he had an anticipatory bail.Siddique has moved an application seeking anticipatory bail from the Supreme Court while the complainant is also said to have moved the Apex court challenging his bail plea. The state is also challenging his bail.
No actor has come forward to defend any of those facing sexual abuse charges. The actors’ outfit AMMA is not there to discuss their issue. Many other artists like film maker Ranjit, actor Jayasurya, Edvela Babu, are all booked on different counts.Siddique, Mukesh, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Ganesh Kumar and others had rallied behind Dileep when the media slammed AMMA for discarding the victim of 2017 crime then.
It was this stand of the AMMA controlled by Siddique and top artists that led to the exodus of a majority of women artists to form Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) on whose demand the Justice Hema Committee was formed to study atrocities on female artists. If the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists(AMMA) had stood neutral, things would not have reached a stage where it has landed now.Ironically, AMMA is not there, but WCC is fully active and standing behind the female artists abused in the past.
It was the attack on the actress in 2017 that signaled the downfall of Malayalam film industry for which Dileep case has played a key role.Kudos to a few sincere police officials who were instrumental in unearthing evidence in the actor abuse case despite the government slow pedaling on the case.
