After HC order, Kerala govt must give SIT all statements, clips and documents in Hema panel report

The Kerala High Court has directed the state government not just to furnish the complete Hema Committee report on problems faced by women in the Malayalam film industry to the Special Investigation team (SIT) but also all the annexures. This means the state government, which has till now withheld documentary evidence along with the portion of the report containing the statements of the witnesses collected by the Hema Committee, will have to release everything recorded by the panel.

The HC has also ordered that SIT may proceed to take action in accordance with law by treating the contents of the report as 'information' to set the law in motion.

"The State Government shall, forthwith, furnish a full copy of the Justice Hema Committee report, together with all its annexures -- documentary and otherwise -- to the SIT constituted in terms of the order dated 25.08.2024. The SIT shall, on its part, go through the report in its entirety to see whether any offence, cognizable or otherwise, has been made out at the instance of any person and proceed to take suitable action in accordance with law by treating the contents of the report as “information” for the purposes of setting the law in motion," according to the order issued by the special bench comprising Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and C S Sudha.

Advocate Sekhar G Thampi, who appeared for the petitioner, said that all the clips, messages and screenshots submitted by the Hema Committee to the government will now have to be handed over to the SIT. "The order clearly says that in addition to the report, all other documents shall be handed over to the SIT. This includes evidence in the form of messages, audio clips and the like and SIT can act on it," said the advocate.

The Hema Committee report notes that it has taken into consideration various documents, audio clips, video clips, screen shots of WhatsApp messages, WhatsApp chats etc produced by the witnesses. The committee marked these as Exhibit C1 to C24 along with certain other documents and materials procured by the committee from other sources which were marked as Exhibits B1 to B31.

In the report, the committee reiterates that it has collected documentary evidence from individuals working in cinema and certain others who are not connected to cinema and also from WhatsApp messages, videos, screen shots from mobile phone, voice clips etc..." Necessary documents were also procured through various sources and persons other than witnesses who gave statements through e-mail etc," the report says.

Actor Sarada, who was part of the committee, told Onmanorama that all the documentary evidence collected by the committee was handed over to the Chief Minister of Kerala while submitting the report.

The latest HC order will also bring all those revelations included in the Hema Committee report under the ambit of the SIT investigation. The state government formed the SIT in the wake of allegations of sexual abuse raised against a few actors of Malayalam cinema. The government had maintained a stand that the information in the Hema Committee report need not be probed.

The Advocate General, appearing for the state, told the court that other than entrusting a copy of the report to the Director General of Police in February, 2021, no further action was taken by the state government. "We are also informed that even the Director General of Police, to whom the report was handed over, did not take any further action on the report till the constitution of the SIT vide order dated 25.08.2024," the court observed.

The Justice Hema Committee was constituted by the Kerala Government in 2017 and was tasked to study issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. The redacted report was released on August 19, 2024 following HC intervention.