Second FIR filed against director Ranjith for sexual assault

A second case of sexual offence has been filed against director Ranjith following a complaint by a male actor in the district, police said on Saturday.

An FIR under Section 377 (wrongful offence) of the IPC and Section 66 E (punishment for invasion of privacy) of the Information Technology (IT) Act was lodged against the director at Kasaba police station on Friday evening, a senior district police officer said.

The plaintiff actor claimed that the director called him to a hotel in Bengaluru in 2012, asked him to undress and took nude photographs of him.

The complainant also claimed to television channels that the photos had been sent to a well-known veteran actress who had denied these allegations.

The first case against Ranjith was under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (physical assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and was based on a complaint by an actress from West Bengal about an incident that took place in 2009.

She had alleged that the director touched her inappropriately with sexual intent after inviting her to act in the film Paleri Manikyam in 2009.

Following the actor's allegations, Ranjith resigned from his post as chairman of the Kerala Chalachitra Academy.

Numerous FIRs (Facebook messages) have been filed against many well-known personalities in the Malayalam film fraternity following allegations of sexual harassment against various directors and actors in the wake of the revelations in the Justice K Hema Committee report.

The Justice Hema Committee was set up by the Government of Kerala following the 2017 actress assault case and its report uncovered cases of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam film industry.

After allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation were made against several actors and directors, the state government announced on August 25 that it would set up a seven-member special investigation team to investigate these allegations.