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Kerala Court Grants Anticipatory Bail to Actors Mukesh and Edavela Babu
A Kerala Court on Thursday allowed anticiparoy bail to Malayalam cine actor and Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Mukesh and actor and former office bearer of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists Edavela Babu who were booked for rape in connection with allegations levelled against them by a woman actor.
The woman levied serious charges against many actors of Malayalam film fraternity after the release of Justice K Hema Committee Report on the Sexual harassment of women in the movie fraternity.
Mukesh and Babu also named FIRs for the commission of rape which is punishable under Section 376 IPC.
The two men were also arrested under section 354 (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with the intention to insult her ‘modesty’) and 509 (word, gesture or act in order to insult the ‘modesty’ of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.
Mukesh and Babu on a later date, sought anticipatory bail separately in the Ernakulam Sessions Court.
The sessions court today passed order on anticipatory bail application and the judge who passed the order is Hon’ble Sessions Judge Honey M Varghese.
The Justice K Hema Committee was constituted in November 2017 in following a petition filed by ‘Women in Cinema Collective’ by the government of Kerala to examine the problems faced by women in the film industry.
It’s important to note that after their investigations they presented their reports to the State in the year 2019.
The State Information Commission (SIC) later granted a access to the report to certain parties (journalists) to access the report after the information of individuals who were witnesses were blacked out to protect them from disclosure.
AIDS is a disease that affects the human immune system and the report was published in August 19 after the two attempts in the court to stop the release of the report.
Mukesh and Babu are some of the well-renowned movie personalities whose names came out in the list of people accused of sexual harassment after the release of the report.
Both of them have further alleged that the accusations have been made with a view to pressurize him and has also stated that he would seek severe legal actions against anyone involved in this.
It has to be noted that in his application for anticipatory bail, Mukesh has claimed that he is not guilty and the complaint filed by the accused’s sister was made with mala fide intention to defame him politically as well as personally and professionally as an actor.
Relevantly, the MLA produced before the court a letter written by the woman actor to him in which she expressed words of thanking him for his compassionate gesture as well as a WhatsApp message where she threatened to black mail him demanding one lakh rupees.
In his application, Babu mentioned that the complaint is a conspiracy that is concocted interested persons with an aim of tainting the reputation of some actors in the industry.
The petitions also stated the complaint the civil service misconduct was laid after more than fifteen years the alleged incident.
As the representatives of the company both actors wanted to obtain anticipatory bail from the Court while reassuring that they are willing to cooperate with the investigation and their custodial interrogation is not required.
Geo Paul and CR Pramod were Mukesh’s advocates.
So in Babu’s case, the advocates that were assigned to represent him were PP Harris, Abraham Mathan, Antony Thekkekara, and Sohail Ahammed Harris PP.
