Malayalam film director Ranjith booked for allegedly sexually assaulting actor

The Karnataka Police has filed a case against Malayalam film director Ranjith Balakrishnan for allegedly sexually assaulting a 31-year-old male actor, PTI reported on Monday.

The first information report was registered at the Bengaluru airport police station on Saturday, the news agency quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.

As per the FIR, the actor claimed that he met Balakrishnan in Kerala’s Kozhikode in 2012 when he had gone to meet actor Mammootty during the shooting of the film Bavuttiyude Namathil, PTI reported. The film was written and produced by Balakrishnan.

Subsequently, Balakrishnan invited the complainant to a hotel near Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport in December 2012, the report said. The director offered him alcohol and allegedly sexually assaulted him, it added.

The complaint was initially filed at a police station in Kerala, PTI quoted the officer as saying. But the case was transferred to Bengaluru because the alleged incident took place at the hotel in the city, he said.

The officer added: “The incident allegedly took place in 2012 but the complainant came out now in the wake of a series of sexual harassment allegations by many artists in the Malayalam film industry, which he claimed gave him the courage to register his complaint.”

The actor is among several persons from the Malayalam film industry who have come forward...

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