A case was registered against Malayalam filmmaker Ranjith Balakrishnan on August 26, Monday, after Bengali actor Sreelekha Mitra filed a police complaint against him for allegedly sexually harassing her in the year 2009. She had spoken out about the incident before the media last week after the publication of the Hema Committee report, detailing issues of women in Malayalam cinema. Following this, Ranjith, a director and writer of many celebrated films in Malayalam, had resigned from his post as chairperson of the Kerala Chalachitra Academy. 

In her complaint, sent via email to the Kochi Commissioner of Police, Sreelekha described the incident that allegedly took place when she visited Kochi in 2009. She had come to the city for discussions related to one of Ranjith’s films, called Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha. “During the course of discussion, he clutch hold of my hand and later on attempted to spread his hand to other parts of my body with sexual intention. Realizing that his intentions are not the discussion regarding the film and with sexual intent, I had to escape from the flat and returned to the hotel where I was staying. My bitter experience was shared on the next day to a script writer Sri Joshy Joseph. As I was not given the traveling ticket for my return journey, I was compelled to seek the help of Sri Joshy Joseph (sic),” Sreelekha wrote.

Since she was from Kolkata, the actor was unable to pursue the matter, “to prosecute Sri Ranjith for the offence attracting section 354 & 354 B (sexual assault) of the Indian Penal Code at the time of commission of crime.”

Joshy Joseph, who is also a documentary filmmaker, corroborated the incident after Sreelekha spoke out last week. Ranjith denied the incident, but said that he would vacate his post to protect the image of the government of Kerala (since the Academy is a state-run institute). 

Since the Hema Committee report came out, revealing the prevalence of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry, the government has been offering support to women who wanted to take up legal course of action, no matter how big the names of the accused were. However, Kerala’s Minister for Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian had at first come to Ranjith’s defence, saying action could not be taken against the reputed filmmaker on “mere allegations”.