The Supreme Court on November 19 granted Malayalam film actor Siddique anticipatory bail in an alleged rape case, taking note of the fact that the complaint was filed eight years after the alleged incident took place in 2016. The actor was asked to cooperate with the investigation officer and deposit his passport. A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma granted the bail.
On September 24, the Kerala high court had rejected Siddique’s anticipatory bail plea in the case, saying that in view of the seriousness of the accusations, his custodial interrogation was needed for proper investigation.
The apex court had granted Siddique interim protection from arrest on September 30. Since then, the Supreme Court has extended the interim relief from time to time.