"They Got Scared...": Malayalam Actor Minu Muneer As Sex Abuse Survivors Backtrack
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All 35 sexual harassment complaints against Malayalam film personalities will be closed, as survivors refuse to testify. Minu Muneer, a key accuser, cites intimidation and false charges against her as reasons for the silence.
New Delhi:
All 35 complaints accusing prominent Malayalam film personalities of misogyny and sexual harassment will be closed, i.e., a special police team will not pursue possible convictions in even one instance, sources within the investigating team told NDTV this week.
Sources said the investigating team had been left with 'no option' but to file FADs, or 'further action dropped', reports because all the survivors had refused to record statements, while those who had already testified did not want to pursue further legal action or give any more details.
All these complaints were filed after last year's Justice K Hema Committee report flagged an alarming number of sexual assault allegations. The committee was appointed in 2017 and submitted its report in 2019, but it was only in 2024 that a redacted version was made public.
And it was only after the report was released - generating widespread outrage - that the Kerala government formed the SIT, or special investigation team, to inquire into the complaints.
Among the complaints was actor Minu Muneer, who spoke extensively with NDTV last year and offered details of allegations against popular actors like M Mukesh, Jayasurya, Maniyanpilla Raju, and Idavela Babu; she accused them of harassment while movies were being filmed.
She also told NDTV she had received death threats after going public with her complaints.
Ms Muneer spoke again with NDTV Wednesday morning and said the reason, she believed, why many survivors had gone silent, was the false POCSO, or child sex abuse, charges against her.
"When I first disclosed these complaints, you know, I had to face a lot of challenges. The number one is this false POCSO case... when police charged me without proper investigation, then all the victims got scared. Even I had a lot of friends come forward... they also got scared."
"... this morphed video, false POCSO case emerged only after I disclosed the truth against prominent people, especially film director Balachandran Menon," Ms Muneer told NDTV.
" First I disclosed about Mukesh, then Babu... there was no problem for two weeks. Then, when I disclosed about prominent actor and director Balachandran Menon, I got death threats."
Ms Muneer was referring to allegations in September last year by a young girl - that the actress made "sex slaves" of herself and others. The girl, local media had said, is her minor cousin.
Ms Muneer said then that the allegations were part of a political plot to stop her and others from coming forward with damaging stories about powerful men in the Malayalam film industry.
"So, after all this (the allegedly false POCSO case against her) how will other survivors come forward? What challenges will they face... because now I am facing challenges for the last nine months... and Balachandran Menon also filed a false complaint about my Facebook post."
The false complaint allegation dated back to Ms Muneer's original social media post, against which Mr Menon had filed defamatory charges, under sections of the IT Act.
"I posted the post... it is the truth. But he complained that I had insulted him. But how it is insult? I wrote about what I had gone through in the Malayalam film industry."
"So, when I am facing these problems and all other survivors are watching... then how will they come forward?" she asked, pointing out also she had been denied anticipatory bail over the Facebook post complaint because of allegedly false POCSO charges.
"What mistake did I do? Only disclosing the truth... only posting factual content..."
Ms Muneer also indicated the police team investigating these and other complaints had, in fact, worked hard and were receptive to the women's concerns, and that she had cooperated fully.
The actors against whom Ms Muneer had filed allegations had said they welcomed a full investigation into the charges, and one of them, Mukesh, claimed Minu Muneer (and her associates) had sought financial assistance from him and then tried to blackmail him.
All of these allegations, Ms Muneer's and others', resulted in a shake-up of the film industry's top decision-making body, AMMA, or Association of Malayalam Movie Actors. The main panel dissolved itself "in light of allegations made by some actors against some of the committee".
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