Kochi: Kerala Police is mulling to approach the Kerala High Court after a lower court granted anticipatory bail to actor turned politician Mukesh following the allegation against him after the Justice Hema Committee report was released.
Kerala Police has formed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe all cases related to revelations made by the committee’s report on the condition of women in the Malayalam film industry.
On Thursday, Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court – following a long hearing – granted an anticipatory bail to Mukesh.
Sources said that the SIT has sought legal advice about the case in the wake of the anticipatory bail as it may be difficult to further investigate the case and are likely to approach the High Court against the lower court’s verdict.
On August 19, the Justice Hema Committee report was released on the conditions of the women working in the Malayalam film industries which made explosive revelations, triggering a storm of complaints against top film personalities.
Kerala Police have so far registered FIRs against 11 people, ten of which are from the film industry based on the complaints from women.
The cases have been filed against actors Mukesh, Nivin Pauly, Siddique, Jayasurya, Edavela Babu, and Maniyanpilla Raju, directors Ranjith and V.K. Prakash, and production executives Vichu and Noble.
Actor Baburaj and director Tulasidas have been named in complaints too but no FIRs have been registered against them so far.
Meanwhile, the special investigation team of seven police officials, of which four are woman IPS officers, are currently taking statements from those victims who have come forward with their complaints but are yet to question the accused.
In a related development on Saturday, the SIT called a woman and her husband who have filed a complaint against upcoming star Pauly and have started taking their statements.
The woman filed the complaint that she was sexually exploited by Pauly and five others in Dubai on December 14th and 15th last year, which has been flatly dismissed by Pauly, leading to the filing of a counter-complaint by the actor against the woman for levelling baseless charges.
Pauly appeared to have got a major relief when his co-actor Vineeth publicly said the two dates that have been mentioned by the woman, Pauly along with 200 artists were busy shooting at a mall in Kochi on both the dates.
(IANS)
