Kerala Women’s Commission backs registering FIRs over Hema committee report revelations in SC- The Week

The Kerala women’s commission filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Saturday, supporting registering FIRs over revelations made by victims in the Justice Hema committee report. The women’s commission move comes following the apex court’s notice to the Kerala government over a plea by a film producer challenging a probe into Hema committee report statements.

In its affidavit, the women’s body said  Sajimon Parayil, the film producer who has petitioned against further probe on the report is trying to distort facts regarding the case. The women’s commission said the petitioner is only trying to stall the probe being carried out by Kerala police’s Special Investigation Team through the petition.

The Kerala government formed a SIT to probe incidents of women exploitation and sexual harassment in Malayalam cinema after multiple victims shared their plight through media following the release of the Hema committee report. Cases were registered against at least over 15 artists in the Malayalam industry following the allegations.

The petitioner in the case had earlier approached the Kerala High Court against releasing the Hema Committee report. However, the HC dismissed the plea and ordered the release of a redacted version of the report, protecting the privacy of individuals. In his petition challenging the HC order, Parayil said the statements in the report cannot be considered as information and a blanket direction cannot be issued while most of the witnesses in the report were disinclined to lodge FIRs.

The Kerala government formed a three-member committee led by Justice K. Hema to probe instances of sexual harassment and women exploitation in the industry in 2017. Though the report was submitted to the Kerala government in 2019, it was released only this year. While the Kerala government was earlier reluctant to probe instances of alleged sexual assault and rape mentioned in the report, the Kerala High Court in October directed the SIT to conduct further probe on those charges as well.