The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Siddique, who was arrested on allegations of raping a young actress in 2016.
The Bench of Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma noted that considering the sensitivity of the case, it would not be appropriate to assign elaborate reasons for making the interim anticipatory bail granted to Siddique von September 30, absolute.
However, considering the fact that the complainant had filed the complaint almost eight years after the alleged incident which had taken place in 2016, the Bench was inclined to accept the appeal filed by Siddique.
The top court of the country noted that the complainant had posted messages on Facebook in 2018 making allegations about 14 people including the appellant with regard to the alleged sexual abuse. She also did not go to the Hema Committee, which was set up by the Government of Kerala, the Bench further noted.
Siddique was directed to deposit his passport before the trial court and co-operate with the investigation. The trial court was granted liberty to set other conditions for the anticipatory bail.
Siddique approached the Apex Court by way of a Special Leave Petition against the Kerala High Court’s order dated September 24 that denied him anticipatory bail