Actor Siddique appears at Cantonment Police station in Thiruvananthapuram for questioning in 2016 rape case

Veteran film actor Siddique arrives to appear before a special investigation team for questioning in an alleged rape case, in Thiruvananthapuram. File photo
| Photo Credit: S. GOPAKUMAR

Actor Siddique turned up for questioning in a rape case at the Cantonment Police station in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday (October 12, 2024).

Also read: Tracking the fallout of the Hema Committee Report

Mr. Siddique arrived at the Station House along with actor Biju Pappan. He refused to speak to the phalanx of television news crews who mobbed him for a comment and entered the police station in a hurry. 

A special investigation team (SIT) has been investigating the veteran actor on allegations of raping an aspiring artiste in a hotel room in the city in 2016. 

In the aftermath of the recent publication of the 2019 K. Hema Committee report, which documented reportedly pervasive sexual exploitation, abuse and misogyny in the Malayalam film industry, several women, many of them cinema role aspirants or relatively junior artists, including Mr. Siddique’ ‘s accuser had come out in conventional and social media, against their alleged aggressors. 

SIT probe

Subsequently, the government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising three women IPS officers, to probe the accusations. Mr. Siddique’s accuser gave a sworn in-camera statement before a magistrate. 

The SIT escorted her to the suspected crime scene, including a room in the government-owned five-star hotel where the offence allegedly unfolded, and submitted a crime scene report in court. They also confiscated the hotel’s booking visitor’s register for the year. 

The SIT also recorded the statements of psychiatrists and counsellors who the “survivor” had visited. They also recorded the contemporaneous statements the woman had allegedly given to her family and friends after the alleged sexual violation. 

Consequently, the SIT approached the court seeking Mr Siddique’s custodial interrogation. The Kerala High Court also turned down Mr. Siddique’s anticipatory bail plea. The court said, prima facie, the case merited the arrest and custodial interrogation of the suspect. Mr. Siddique eventually got relief from the Supreme Court. 

The SIT had asked M.r Siddique to submit his mobile phone for forensic examination. A team headed by the Superintendent of Police, Merlin Joseph, and the DSP, Crime Branch, was questioning Mr. Siddique.