Hema Committee Report: Actor Siddique Seeks Anticipatory Bail in Sexual Assault Case After Mukesh And Prakash

Hema Committee Report: Leading actors have been facing a barrage of allegations and are seeking anticipatory bail after the release of the shocking Justice Hema Committee report. The report exposed the sexual exploitation of women artists in the Malayalam cinema industry. AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes) former general secretary Siddique filed a motion with the Kerala High Court on Monday, requesting anticipatory bail in connection with a rape allegation that a female star had brought against him. She accused Siddique of raping her in a state-run hotel in the state capital, leading to the registration of a lawsuit against him.
In his plea, Siddique stated that the complainant had been harassing him since 2019 by claiming on social media that they had attempted to engage in sexual misconduct at a theatre in 2016. “It is clear that the defacto complainant is made aware that simple allegation of attempted sexual assault is a bailable offence, and therefore, the petitioner could not be taken into custody and it is to make out a case warranting arrest and detention of the petitioner that the defacto complainant has now come up with an allegation of rape,” his plea read.
Siddique resigned from his AMMA position after she made her revelation, and a few days later, the whole 17-member AMMA executive, headed by superstar Mohanlal as president, also resigned, leaving the organization—which consists of some 500 actors—headless. Director V. K. Paash and actor-turned-CPI-M lawmaker Mukesh requested bail last week, and the former was granted temporary release from custody until Tuesday.
Hema Committee Report Impact
The Hema Committee report exposed the ‘male hegemony’ in the Malayalam film industry, and since then, nine prominent figures in the industry have been named in formal complaints. These include directors Ranjith and Prakash, producers Vichu and Noble, and actors Mukesh, Siddique, Jayasurya, Edavela Babu, and Maniyan Pillai Raju.
The Malayalam film industry seems to have taken a hard knock with the resignation of AMMA office bearers and the open divisions among the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), a grouping of 21 organizations that includes high-profile directors and light guys.
With Mukesh’s case resuming on Tuesday, all eyes are focused on the outcome of these bail applications, even as the four female IPS officials who make up the seven-person police investigative team continue to interview victims. To date, though, none of the accused have received a summons to appear before the investigation team.