South Indian actress Radhika Sarathkumar on Saturday made a startling claim that objectionable videos of female actors were recorded with hidden cameras inside caravans on the shooting set of a Malayalam film and she had personally witnessed male actors watching it on their mobile phones.
The actor, who has been in the US with his family for the past one month, said he will face the allegations legally and his lawyers will take care of the proceedings in the cases against him till he returns.
The new administrative panel would be elected within two months after convening a general body meeting, it said.
The chief minister's office said the special team will be headed by IG Sparjan Kumar and will include four senior women IPS officers of the state.
MLA of the ruling CPI-M and actor M Mukesh was on Tuesday formally arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the rape case against him on a complaint by a female actor.
A second case for a sexual offence has been registered against director Ranjith on a complaint by a male actor in Kozhikode, police said on Saturday.
'Abuse, asking for sexual favours, and expecting women to compromise to gain a foothold or accelerate their careers exist in every field. Why is a woman alone expected to go through the grind?'
The actor-politician however, said they should not try to destroy such a huge industry like cinema.
He said that the police were vigorously investigating the complaints of sexual harassment and abuse raised by several women, so let the agency carry on with its probe honestly.
As pressure mounted, the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front seemed to be supporting Mukesh, taking a cautious wait-and-watch stance.
Separate cases have been registered in Kerala against popular Malayalam actors Jayasoorya and Maniyanpilla Raju following an allegation raised by a female actor that they had sexually assaulted her, police said on Thursday. Multiple FIRs have been registered against many high profile Malayalam film personalities following allegations of sexual harassment against various directors and actors in the wake of revelations in the Justice K Hema Committee report. In a Facebook post, the woman actor had said, 'I am writing to report a series of incidents of physical and verbal abuse I suffered at the hands of 1 Mukesh 2 Maniyan Pilla Raju, 3 Idavela Babu, 4 Jayasoorya (Jayasurya), 5 adv Chandrasekaran, 6 production controller Noble and Vichu, in the Malayalam film industry.'
An officer of Oonnukal police station, where the FIR under Section 376 of the IPC was registered, said that there are six accused, including a woman, in the case.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on September 30 the plea of Malayalam film actor Sidhique challenging the Kerala high court order denying him anticipatory bail in a rape case.
Throwing its weight behind actor-cum-MLA M Mukesh, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist in Kerala on Saturday said that he need not resign from his post as legislator merely because a rape case has been registered against him.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma issued notices to the Kerala government and the victim in the case and sought their replies within two weeks.
'These allegations need to be treated with utmost seriousness.'
The fallout from the Justice K Hema Committee report on harassment and abuse in the Malayalam film industry intensified on Monday as a case was filed against well-known filmmaker Ranjith, and several female actors stepped forward with disturbing accounts of the mistreatment they faced at the hands of their various male counterparts.
Even as political pressure was building against Ranjith, actor Siddique quit as the general secretary of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) amid voices from within his fraternity seeking his resignation.
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