Over the last two weeks, Kerala has witnessed a wave of #MeToo, with many women coming out with sexual abuse allegations against Sujeesh PS, a tattoo artist who ran the studio Inkfected in Kochi. While Sujeesh was arrested by police on March 3, allegations have surfaced against another man now — makeup artist Anez Anzare. Three women filed a complaint against him with the Kochi Commissioner of Police, Nagaraju, of Police on Thursday, March 10.
TNM spoke to one of the complainants, Disha*, who said that Anez allegedly sexually abused her in 2015, on the day of her engagement. “I have handled the trauma by keeping it inside for a long time. I never spoke out, until I saw the allegations against the tattoo artist (Sujeesh) on social media. It just triggered something in me after keeping it bottled up for so long. A friend of mine shared an Instagram story about the tattoo artist, seeing which I wrote to her about my own experience. She shared my experience [with the makeup artist] after asking me. In 3-4 hours, 5-6 people had reached out alleging abuse by the same makeup artist and the same patterns,” she said.
“I realised that what happened to me was not a lone incident. I assumed that I alone had gone through it. Knowing I was not alone gave me courage,” Disha said. Speaking about the day of the alleged sexual assault, she shared, “It’s well known, the kind of pressure that is on a woman on the day of the wedding. I knew what happened was wrong, but I just kind of froze… I was scared.”
The 32-year-old told TNM that on Friday, she and two other women have sent their written complaints to the commissioner and will soon go to the designated police station to record their statements, so that a First Information Report (FIR) can be registered. The Commissioner, Nagaraju, confirmed to TNM that the women can email their complaints against Anez. "We are gathering more details to register FIRs at the Palarivattom police station," he said.
According to an Instagram account that goes by the name of Arshootti (and is also one of the complainants against Sujeesh), around 10 women have come forward with allegations against Anez. Further, the survivors have started an Instagram page called “InSolidarity2022”, where others can come forward to share testimonies and even seek legal advice and help if they want to file a complaint.
*Name changed