Malayalam actor Pauly files plaint with police to probe sexual assault allegations

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 5: Two days after actor Nivin Pauly denied allegations of sexual assault leveled by a woman against him and five others, the upcoming star filed a complaint with the State Police Chief (SPC) seeking a probe into what he termed were “baseless” accusations.

On Tuesday a complaint was registered by the Oonukal Police based on a complaint forwarded by the Ernakulam Rural SP of Police, to whom the woman had first complained about the sexual assault in Dubai. Hours after the news of the police registering the case surfaced, Pauly (40) came before the media and denied the allegations saying that he had never seen nor spoken to the complainant.

Pauly said that he would go to any extent to prove his innocence in the matter and fight the case not for himself, but also for people facing similar accusations by women. Pauly filed the complaint on Thursday before the SPC seeking a compressive probe into the allegations. His complaint comes at a time when an FIR has been registered naming him as the sixth accused in the alleged assault on the woman in Dubai, which also includes a producer AK Sunil.

Even while Pauly called the allegations baseless, the complainant also asserted that she, too, would fight the case and prove that what she said was true. She had stated that following the surfacing of the Justice Hema Committee report last month, she heard about the numerous complaints being filed and hence she decided to lodge a fresh complaint against Pauly.

Pauly, who has won two Kerala Film Awards, started as a software engineer before joining the film industry in 2010. He has done over 50 films with several of them going on to become Box Office hits. He turned producer with ‘Action Hero Biju’ in 2016 under his banner Pauly Jr. Pictures, which turned out to be a super grosser.

Trouble has been brewing in the Malayalam film industry ever since the release of the Justice Hema Committee report after a long delay last month, revealing rampant sexual exploitation of women in the film world. Kerala Police have so far registered FIRs against 11 people, including nine from the film industry, based on complaints lodged by actresses.

Those who are in the dock include actor turned CPI(M) legislator Mukesh Madhavan, Siddique, Jayasurya, Edavela Babu, Maniyanpilla Raju, directors Ranjith and VK Prakash, and production executives Vichu and Noble. By now those who have got relief from the court include Mukesh, Renjith and Raju.