A Malayalam actor, who had raised allegations of rape against prominent actors, including CPIM legislator M Mukesh, Friday said she will no longer pursue her legal battle since the Kerala government did not support her, which had “mentally shattered” her.
The actor, who hails from Ernakulam, had raised the allegations in August following the release of the Justice Hema Committee report, which looked into the issues being faced by women professionals in the industry.
Following her complaint, police had registered cases against actors Mukesh, Jayasurya, Edavela Babu and Maniyanpilla Raju, as well as film production controller Noble and Congress-affiliated lawyers association leader V S Chandrasekharan.
She had also raised the allegations against veteran filmmaker Balachandra Menon, though he was not booked by the police. On the other hand, the woman had faced an alleged POCSO case following a complaint from her relative.
She told the media, “When I came out, the government should have given me support. The Kerala government is not protecting any woman. I came out for the sake of women. The state government did not give me any support, which has mentally shattered me. There should have been an impartial probe. The government should have adopted the same approach towards the accused and the complainant. I am going back from the cases. The decision is not part of any compromise formula. In the POSCO case, nobody supported. The police could not prove the fake POSCO case against me. I am withdrawing from all cases.”
Mukesh and other actors were arrested in separate cases following which the court had granted them bail. Following the allegations against Mukesh, there has been clamour from the Opposition, as well as from some quarters within the Left, for his resignation as legislator. But the ruling CPI(M) threw its weight behind him, making it clear that he did not need to step aside because of the allegation.
The woman had alleged the incident took place in 2010 in Kochi.
The Ernakulam sessions court, which granted him anticipatory bail to Mukesh, observed that “there is a clear distinction between rape and consensual sex” and that “no element of forcible intercourse was mentioned in the first statement”. The court said the use of force was only alleged in a “further statement, recorded after the initial hearing of the bail application”.
After the woman was booked in a POSCO case related to an alleged incident in 2014, she had complained to police that film artistes Swasika, Beena Antony and her husband Manoj had defamed her on YouTube channels. Subsequently, police registered a case against the three professionals on charges of insulting the modesty of a woman.
