Malayalam actor Siddique on Monday approached the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail in a rape case registered on a complaint by a woman actor.
He said in his petition that there was a deliberate and calculated effort to implicate him falsely in the case. The allegations were vague. The complainant was not able to state even the most basic detail regarding the date of the alleged incident. He claimed that the woman had been harassing him and making false accusations against him since 2019. She had repeatedly made unsubstantiated allegations of “attempted sexual misconduct” and “verbal sexual propositions” against the petitioner at a theatre in Thiruvananthapuram in 2016. Now she had come out with a contradictory allegation of a more serious crime of rape at a different location, in a hotel room in Thiruvananthapuram the same year. Her earlier consistent allegations against him had been “sexual misconduct” and “verbal propositions at the theatre in 2016 where a movie preview was held. As she knew that allegation of attempted sexual assault is a bailable offence, the petitioner would not be taken into custody. It is to make out a case warranting his arrest and detention that she has now come up with an allegation of rape. Besides, as she also knew that the theatre was inherently unsuitable for non-verbal sexual acts, she now alleged that the incident occurred in a hotel room. The significant change in narrative revealed a deliberate and calculated effort to implicate him falsely.”
Mr. Siddique has been charged with offences under under Section 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
