The Karnataka Police has filed a case against Malayalam film director Ranjith Balakrishnan for allegedly sexually assaulting a 31-year-old male actor, PTI reported on Monday.
The first information report was registered at the Bengaluru airport police station on Saturday, the news agency quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.
As per the FIR, the actor claimed that he met Balakrishnan in Kerala’s Kozhikode in 2012 when he had gone to meet actor Mammootty during the shooting of the film Bavuttiyude Namathil, PTI reported. The film was written and produced by Balakrishnan.
Subsequently, Balakrishnan invited the complainant to a hotel near Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport in December 2012, the report said. The director offered him alcohol and allegedly sexually assaulted him, it added.
The complaint was initially filed at a police station in Kerala, PTI quoted the officer as saying. But the case was transferred to Bengaluru because the alleged incident took place at the hotel in the city, he said.
The officer added: “The incident allegedly took place in 2012 but the complainant came out now in the wake of a series of sexual harassment allegations by many artists in the Malayalam film industry, which he claimed gave him the courage to register his complaint.”
The actor is among several persons from the Malayalam film industry who have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by their colleagues after the release of the Justice Hema committee report.
The officer told PTI that a case was registered against Balakrishnan under sections pertaining to unnatural offences and the violation of privacy. “The matter is being investigated,” he added.
In August, Balakrishnan resigned as the chairman of the state-run Kerala Chalachitra Academy days after an actor accused him of sexually harassing her in 2009.
The actor had alleged that the director sexually harassed her when the film Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha was being produced.
The director had claimed at the time that the allegations were part of a concerted attack on him.
“The damage the allegation has inflicted upon me as an individual can’t be repaired immediately,” he had said. “Yet, I would have to prove that the allegation was wrong. I will convince the public that it was a lie. She has made contradictory statements. Whatever it be, I have decided to go ahead with legal action.”
Other members of the Malayalam film industry who have been booked on charges of sexual misconduct after the release of the Hema report include, actor Siddique, actor and Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA M Mukesh, actor Jayasurya and director VA Shrikumar Menon.
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