Kerala

Police case against actor Vinayakan after woman complains of harassment

Written by : Cris

A case has been registered against actor Vinayakan at the Kalpetta Police Station, on a complaint by activist Mruduladevi Sasidharan. “The complaint is that she has been abused over the phone. A case has been registered under IPC 294 (B) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place) and IPC 506 (criminal intimidation) and Kerala Police Act 120-O (causing, through any means of communication, a nuisance of himself to any person by repeated or undesirable or anonymous call, letter, writing, message, e-mail or through a messenger ),” a policeman at the Kalpetta station told TNM 

Mruduladevi had made a Facebook post on June 3 about the verbal abuse she faced from the actor. She had mentioned the abuse she faced in a post in which she also supported him for the online attack against him for a political stand he took. Vinayakan had made his anti-BJP stance clear in an interview and had been abused online by people believed to be right wing supporters. It was mostly castesist and racial abuse.

Mrudula made it clear in her post that she condemns the casteist attack on Vinayakan even as she opens up about the telephonic exchange from April 2018 when he had allegedly harassed her. “I had respect for Vinaykan who stood with the woman actor (who was assaulted in a moving car in 2017). But I have experienced his anti-woman attitude in real life. I have no respect for Vinayakan who asked if I would sleep with him and said that he wants my mother too, when I called to invite him for a programme. I have kept the call recording,” she wrote in her post.

After this, she expressed her solidarity with him for the casteist attack on him. “I strongly oppose Vinayakan being harassed in the name of his caste or race, as I have always stood against such casteist insults. I am not with the Vinayakan who has seen a woman’s body as a sexual object but I am with the Vinayakan who has been facing casteist attack.”

Mruduladevi ended her post by saying she has nothing more to add to her post on phone calls or messages and has declined to comment on it when TNM contacted her.

However, TNM has learnt that she decided to file a police complaint against Vinayakan after they social media mayhem her post created, with many accusing her of lying. Mruduladevi has agreed to provide the phone audio whenever the police needed.

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