Writer VR Sudheesh, who was booked for allegedly harassing and stalking a woman publisher, was arrested by the Kerala police on Monday, June 13, and let out on bail later. He was arrested based on the woman’s complaint at Kozhikode Vanitha police station. The publisher, MA Shahanas, had named the writer in a social media post, and alleged that he had been harassing multiple women, under the pretext of working with them.
The woman had published a Facebook post with the title, “This is not my me too but only my response”, where she alleged that Sudheesh had misbehaved with many women. Shahanas, spoke with TNM later, and said that Sudheesh had sexually harassed her many times. “He used to ask me to come to his house to make some corrections or some editing work for a book that we are publishing, and if I do not go alone, he used to get angry. Even when there was no work to be done at all, he used to do this. Even after I filed the complaint, he started threatening me through a woman and some of my friends. He said he would be releasing photos of me to defame me. However, I am going forward with this case. I want to see what photos he is talking about,” she had said.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Kozhikode Vanitha police, Sudheesh has been booked under sections 354A(1)(ii) (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 354-D(1)(i) (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides section 120(o) (penalty for causing nuisance and violation of public order) of the Kerala Police (KP) Act.