Malayalam actor Salim Kumar has apologised for saying that the prominent woman actor who was abducted and allegedly sexually assaulted in February this year, should undergo a lie detector test.
On Sunday, extending his support to actor Dileep, as there were allegations that the actor was involved in the assault case, Salim Kumar had written a Facebook post that the survivor should undergo a lie detector test to clear all confusion.
"People who want to harass Dileep must first do one thing. Get Pulsar Suni and the woman actor to undergo a lie detector test. It will end there...everything will end there," he wrote.
However, on Monday, the actor, while apologising to the survivor and her family, wrote in another FB post, “Yesterday in my post, I have opined that lie detector test should be done on the woman actor who was a victim. Later I understood that it was a mistake and against the woman’s dignity. So I apologise to the actor, her family and the public. I will remove the mention from my post,” the national award winning actor wrote.
Salim Kumar’s statement had invited criticism from several quarters.
In social media, there was furore against the actor. Director Baiju Kottarakkara wrote, “To Salim Kumar, Your opinion to conduct lie detector test on the actor victim, who was mentally broken was very good. Whom do you try to protect saying such things that even a brutal heart wouldn’t have thought of.”
“Even if you won national or Oscar award, if your heart is not kind then you cannot be called as an artiste. If you have a conscience, please remove the post and apologise to the girl.”
The abduction of the actor is the latest in the series of events "scripted" by certain people to destroy Dileep's career, Salim Kumar had claimed in his first FB post. The first move in this script was the actor's divorce from his former wife Manju Warrier, Salim Kumar had said.
Not only Salim Kumar, Aju Varghese and director Laljose also took to Facebook to reiterate Dileep's claim that he is being framed in the case. Aju landed up in controversy while professing his support to Dileep, as he had mentioned the survivor’s name.
However, after facing backlash, Aju withdrew the survivor’s name and also apologised for revealing it.
A Kalamassery native, Gireesh Babu, had given a complaint to the DGP regarding Aju’s post.
“Apologise for using the name of my colleague who was assaulted. So removing it from the post,” Aju wrote.