The first season of Bigg Boss Malayalam premiered on television on Sunday and the show has already landed in controversy.
Hosted by actor Mohanlal, the show sees 16 contestants living in the Bigg Boss house for 100 days and one of the contestants happens to be actor and television presenter Sabumon, accused of making sexually inappropriate remarks against a woman BJP member.
Sabu has made an appearance on television just weeks after Lasitha Palakkal – who was in June removed as the secretary of Yuva Morcha – filed a police complaint against him for his remarks about her on social media. The police, however, have not summoned him yet for questioning.
Taking to Facebook on Monday, Lasitha lashed out at the Pinarayi Vijayan government for failing to act on her complaint.
"The government claims that Sabu is absconding. But no, there he is on Asianet's show Big Boss! So, what now? Will you also arrest the channel owner for hiding an accused?"
Lasitha further questioned why the Chief Minister or the police chief have not ordered Sabu’s arrest despite his offensive and sexually inappropriate remarks.
"Generally, the CM and the DGP orders for arrest of those people who criticize Pinarayi Vijayan's supporters on social media. Why not take similar action in Sabu's case?" Lasitha wrote in Malayalam.
She urged that Kerala police explain why they were delaying action and demanded that Sabu be arrested soon.
Several users took to social media to hit out at the Kerala police and CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who also holds the Home Ministry portfolio. Memes were posted online stating that Big Boss was a safe haven for criminals like Sabu to evade action.
The police, however, maintained that they have registered an FIR based on Lasitha's complaint.
Panur Sub-inspector told TNM that Sabu has been booked under sections 354 (A) of IPC and 120 of Kerala Police Act (KP). He has, however, not been charged under relevant sections of the IT Act.
"We are still verifying whether the Facebook account belongs to Sabu. It could very well be a fake profile using his photo. So, we cannot jump the gun and arrest him based on a complaint. We need to first verify if it is Sabu who posted the offensive comments. We have handed over the case to the cybercrime department," the SI said.