Actor Siddique, who recently resigned as the general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (A.M.M.A.) has been booked in a complaint of rape filed by a young actor.
On August 27, the young actor lodged a complaint with the state Police Chief Sheikh Darvesh Saheb and the Thiruvananthapuram Commissioner of Police G Sparjan Kumar. In her complaint, she has detailed how she and her parents went to meet Siddique during a movie premiere in 2016 and then she went to meet him at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram. She has in detail described her interactions with Siddique while she was a student in China and how he encouraged her in the pretext of acting in a movie. She also said in her complaint that though she spoke about her experiences for the first time through a Facebook post, she felt threatened by the reactions of fans and others and refrained from filing a complaint.
In 2019, the survivor had spoken up about the alleged assault, which she reiterated in the wake of the Justice Hema Committee report. Addressing the media on August 24, she spoke of the sexual assault she faced from Siddique.
Following the allegation, Siddique resigned from A.M.M.A. on August 25, saying that it would not be right to continue in the post in this situation.
However, he completely denied the allegations and claimed it was fabricated. On August 26, he filed a complaint against the young actor alleging “criminal conspiracy to fabricate and spread false and scandalous allegations” against him.
The First Information Report (FIR) against Siddique was registered on Wednesday, August 28. According to a police source, he has been booked under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Justice Hema Committee report was published on August 19, nearly after five years of submission. The report revealed how women in Malayalam cinema face sexual harassment and abuse. After the report, many women, from junior artists to senior actors, have come out publicly to share their experiences, some of them naming prominent actors, directors, and production controllers.