Malayalam film actor and writer-director Ranjith and actor Siddique, Kerala Chalachitra Academy chairman and Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes’ general secretary respectively on August 25 resigned from their posts over allegations of sexual harassment, as mentioned in the Justice K. Hema Committee report and the subsequent revelations and charges made by women working in cinema against filmmakers and actors. Simultaneously, the Kerala government constituted a police squad team to probe the findings of the Hema Committee report and the complaints thereafter.
A meeting of senior police officers convened by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) will be led by IG (South zone) G. Sparjan Kumar, and will include senior female officers.
Meanwhile, Ranjith, accused of misbehaving with a Bengali film actress, said, he would fight legally.
Over the past week, the Malayalam film industry has been rocked by the Hema Committee report on sexual abuse and exploitation of women professionals. A Bengali film actress on August 22 alleged misbehaviour by Ranjith, following which pressure was building up for his resignation over the past two-three days. It is because of this and such other allegations of sexual misconduct that a perceptible change in the government’s response was noticed. As against its earlier stance that the affected parties should come forward to file complaints so that the charges could be probed, the authorities on August 24 constituted a special investigation team. The team will contact those reportedly affected by acts of sexual misconduct and will investigate if the complainants are ready to cooperate. A young actress levelled a rape allegation against Siddique. Following this, the actor resigned from his post as secretary of Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes.