Malayalam film actor Siddique. File photo: Instagram/actor.sidhique
Sexual assault allegations: Actor Siddique files police complaint against Revathy
In his complaint, the actor said there is “a criminal conspiracy to fabricate and spread false and scandalous allegations against him”
Malayalam actor Siddique on Monday (August 26) filed a police complaint against actress Revathy Sampath after she accused him of sexually assaulting her.
Siddique’s police complaint comes a day after he resigned as the general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) following sexual assault allegations against him.
According to Kerala Police, Siddique, who is currently in Ooty, Tamil Nadu, has sent the complaint to the Director General of Police (DGP) via an email.
In his complaint, Siddique said there is “a criminal conspiracy to fabricate and spread false and scandalous allegations against him”. He denied all the allegations made by Revathy and said he had met her only once in 2016 for a film preview.
Siddique added that there was an attempt to “tarnish his image”.
The Malayalam film industry in Kerala has been rocked by Justice K Hema Committee’s explosive findings of harassment and abuse of women professionals.
What are Revathy’s accusations against Siddique?
Revathy had told the media that she was “sexually abused” by Siddique when she was 21 years old.
“After completing my Plus Two, I had a terrible experience. Siddique sent me messages on Facebook. I had come to discuss a film. This incident occurred when I was 21 years old. He first approached me by calling me ‘Mole’ (a term in Malayalam which means young girl or daughter). There was abuse from Siddique’s side. During the discussion, he sexually abused me. The face he shows now is not the one I saw back then,” Revathy said.
“First, he (Siddique) invited me to watch a (film) preview, I used to call him Siddique uncle. My parents and I went to watch preview but later I told my parents to leave and that I would come after the discussion (for movie). Everything looked professional at first…after some discussion, all of a sudden his conversation turned sexual and by the time I realised it was a trap, the door was locked,” Revathy was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
She continued, “I was helpless and I was scared…he physically assaulted me without my consent. I was numb…he even went for a press conference while I was locked. I tried to escape, call somebody but nothing worked…he came back and (sexually) assaulted me…he also threatened me that even if I spoke out about the assault, nobody was going to believe me and I am nothing and I would never be an actor.”
“He told me that he could cast me for various movies but for every opportunity I would have to sleep with him and this is how everyone has come…when I got a chance I escaped and I just wanted to go home…I was mentally disturbed after that...I went through a lot. I lost my self-esteem and I blamed myself, I felt I did something wrong. I was given names like ‘troublemaker’ and ‘attention seeker’…,” she added.
