Actor Siddique’s son Shaheen on Sunday alleged that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the rape case against his father, has been using coercive tactics to reveal the actor's whereabouts. Shaheen claimed that the cops threatened to take one of his friends into custody if he failed to cooperate. He also added that two of his friends, Nadeer Bakker and Paul Joy Mathew, who were taken into custody by the SIT, were missing.
Manorama News reported that the SIT questioned the duo and released them later in the evening.
"SIT took Nadeer and Paul from their residence around 5:30 am on Sunday. Later, I received a call from Nadeer’s phone. He spoke to me on speakerphone, saying that the police would arrest him unless I gave them information about my father’s location," Shaheen told Manorama News. The families of the missing individuals also lodged complaints with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), citing the incident.
Siddique has been missing for five days following the High Court's rejection of his anticipatory bail in the rape case involving a young actress. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear his plea on Monday.
The Museum Police charged Siddique under Sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) following a complaint from a female colleague. She alleges that the actor sexually assaulted her in a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram in January 2016.
Following the allegations, Siddique resigned as general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA). The charges against him are part of a broader investigation involving multiple Malayalam film industry figures following revelations of sexual harassment and exploitation from the Justice K Hema Committee’s report. The Kerala government has since established a special investigation team to probe these allegations.