The Kerala Police have registered a case against Malayalam movie actor-producer Vijay Babu for allegedly sexually assaulting an actress. Hours after the case was registered against him, Babu claimed innocence and said he is the real victim of the case as he revealed the actress’s name on Facebook live.
The police said the actor alleged in a complaint with the Kochi police on 22nd April that Vijay Babu had sexually abused her many times promising roles in his movies. She also alleged that Vijay Babu had raped her at his flat in Kochi.
Kochi city police deputy commissioner VU Kuriakose said that another case would be registered against Vijay Babu for disclosing the name of the alleged rape survivor.
In the Facebook live, Babu said that he had known the woman since 2018 and had given her a chance to act in his productions after having the auditions. He also said, “she sent several messages to me saying that she was suffering from depression and I have about 400 screenshots of those messages. I have not sent any messages to that lady for the last one-and-a-half years”.
Vijay Babu said that he would move a complaint against the actress for deteriorating his image.
Meanwhile, on the Facebook page named “Women Against Sexual Harassment”, the actress said that Vijay Babu had physically assaulted and sexually exploited her from March 13-April 14, this year. She also said that she had worked with him for a film.
Vijay Babu is the founder of the film production company named Friday Film House and has six productions to his credit.
The WCC (Women in Cinema Collective), which was the petitioner, pointed out that the AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artists) had failed to implement a grievance redressal mechanism for its members against sexual harassment in the workplace and this was a breach of Supreme Court’s Vishaka Guidelines violates of provisions of the 2013 Act.
The WCC took up the matter with the court in the wake of the case pertaining to the abduction and sexual assault of an actress in 2017, in which well-known actor Dileep is one of the accused in the case. The prosecution stated that Dileep has conspired behind the assault and abduction and the trial in the case that is going on in a special court in the state capital.
