Opposition leader VD Satheesan accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of lying about the reasons for the delayed release of the Hema Committee report by releasing a letter from 2020 by Justice Hema. Satheesan also accused the Chief Minister of committing an offence for not initiating any legal action against the perpetrators mentioned in the report, which revealed rampant sexual harassment against women in the Malayalam film industry.
In the letter sent to the then Culture Affairs Secretary Rani George, Justice Hema emphasized that Supreme Court guidelines should be followed, which mandate withholding the identity of the victim. However, instead of withholding only the identities, the entire report was withheld. The letter also contained conflicting statements from Justice Hema—she mentioned that the report should remain confidential, but in another instance, she instructed that Supreme Court guidelines be followed.
“I would also bring to your kind notice, the need to keep the report confidential since it contains details of sexual assault, harassment and abuse which were disclosed to the Committee by various women in privacy in an in camera proceedings. We have been following the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in various decisions, in keeping the matter extra confidential. I would also take the liberty to alert you to follow these principles, before parting with the report to anybody in a routine manner,” Justice Hema said in the letter.
Satheesan alleged that Justice Hema was only requesting adherence to the Supreme Court guidelines on keeping the identities of victims confidential, but was not restraining the release of the report.
“The Chief Minister and the two successive culture ministers have committed a criminal offense by failing to take any action after receiving the report. The Chief Minister did not anticipate that Justice Hema's letter would be made public, so he lied. He should apologize,” Satheesan said.
On August 20, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated that the Hema Committee report had not been released earlier because Justice Hema had written to the government on February 19, 2020, requesting that the report not be made public due to its references that could affect the privacy of many individuals.
“Some women in the film industry made very confidential revelations before the committee. Therefore, Justice Hema repeatedly requested in the letter that under no circumstances should the report prepared by her committee be released,” Pinarayi said. He also claimed that in 2020, a journalist had approached the Information Commission demanding the release of the report. “On October 22, 2020, Commission Chairman Vinson M. Paul issued an order stating that the report cannot be released under the Freedom of Information Act as it contains references to individuals' privacy,” he added.