Adil and Ramshad accused of allegedly stalking and molesting a Mollywood actor at a mall in Kochi have been remanded for 14 days by the Kalamaserry Judicial First Class Magistrate Court. Though the duo had apologised to the actor and her family via a video shared through social media and the actor on Instagram had stated that she accepted the apology, the police refused to take it into consideration and took the duo into custody on Sunday night. The duo who were travelling to Kalamassery Police Station to surrender was dramatically stopped by the police just a kilometer before the station by blocking their vehicle. The accused were later transferred to an undisclosed location for interrogation.
The incident happened on December 17. The actor was shopping at a mall in Kochi with her family when two men walked past her in “a generously spaced aisle in Lulu hypermarket, which barely had people crowding, and one of them, not so accidentally, grazed his hands” on her back while walking past her. “Because it caught me off guard, I couldn’t react immediately. I wanted to give him the benefit of a doubt but you know when something is just not right, you feel it,” she wrote.
Although the actor thought she had imagined it at first, her sister witnessed the incident too. The actor, who went blank for a minute trying to process the situation tried to confront the men but they disregarded her. “Though I made sure that they knew that I understood what had happened, I was still so angry because I couldn’t say anything,” the actor said.
She wrote that the men, trying to strike a conversation with her, began following her and her sister. “Trying to get closer as he spoke, he wanted to know the names of the movies I have been part of,” she said. The men walked away when they saw the actor’s mother approaching them. The actor, who expressed her disappointment at not reacting against the men who dared to misbehave with her, urged women to react strongly in such instances.
“Being a woman has been very tiring, to be on guard every minute as you step out of your house. To watch my clothes when I bend and turn. To guard my chest with my arms in a crowd. And on the days I’m home, I worry about my mother, my sister, my friends who have to do the same things. It is all because of these sick men. You take away our safety. You take away our comfort and the joy of our womanhood. I despise you.” Addressing men, she added, “If you have done anything remotely inappropriate to a woman, know that you are the lowest form of life and you don’t deserve anything but hell.” Moreover, to all the women reading her post, she said, “I hope you have the courage to give a tight slap on the face of such men.”
Meanwhile, the Kerala Women’s Commission had filed a suo moto case in this regard. Officers of the Kalamassery police station, while talking to the media after checking the footage from the shopping mall, said that the men were identified and that they were youngsters. “They inappropriately touched her,” an official said.
The youths accused of molesting the actor initially denied the allegations made against them as police released the video footage of the duo.
