Kasaragod: Binoy Viswam, the state secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), on Tuesday, August 27, called for the registration of an FIR against actor and CPM MLA from Kollam M Mukesh after two women in cinema accused him of sexual harassment.
Viswam said that the Kerala Police should follow the "landmark judgment" in the Lalitha Kumar vs Government of UP case of 2008, where a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that the registration of the First Information Report (FIR) is mandatory if the information discloses commission of a cognisable offence. No preliminary inquiry is permissible in such a situation, the ruling said. An FIR is an important document that initiates the criminal justice process.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] and junior partner CPI are part of the LDF government in Kerala. "The Supreme Court judgment is still valid... All should study the judgment," CPI State Secretary Viswam said when reporters asked if the police should wait for specific complaints from victims to book Mukesh.
Actor Minu Muneer has accused Mukesh of sexual harassment and alleged that she was denied membership in the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes, known as AMMA because she turned down Mukesh's advances. On Tuesday, she also filed a complaint before the special police team inquiring into the allegations of sexual assault and harassment in the Malayalam movie industry.
Casting director Tess Joseph had also raised allegations of sexual harassment against the popular actor and MLA. She said he harassed her during the shoot of 'Ningalkkum Aakaam Kodeeshwaran', a game show along the lines of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'.
Mukesh has denied the allegations and said that Minu Muneer tried to blackmail him and never met Tess Joseph.
But Binoy Viswan, the Kerala chief of the CPI, said as long as there are allegations of cognisable offences, an FIR should be registered. "If an FIR is not registered, the police will have to put down in writing how it concluded that such a case was not cognisable. It is a serious case," he said and added that the CPI was sure that the LDF government would do the right thing. "A Left government will never be with the predators and that's how it should be," he said.
