By Our Correspondent
Kochi, Aug 23 (IVC) The Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) welcomed the findings of the Justice K Hema Committee, the association’s General Secretary Siddique and Vice President Jagadish told newsmen here today.
They said that the Association had defaulted in making its reaction on time and delay was a default on the part of the Association. No power group or mafia worked in the cinema industry in Kerala and no group so high and influential could not control the industry at all, they added.
Complaints against all persons in industry including the minister, Ganeshkumar need not be unbelieved and the committee’s report need not be dismissed as an isolated incident.
The directions of the Hema Committee should be implemented and cases against the guilty should be registered and action should be taken and no need of delay for it, they said. It is the burden of the accused to prove their innocence and if necessary they resort to even an ordeal of fire (Agnisuddhy).
It is essential to make an inquiry into the allegations of knocking the doors of the in which the cinema actors stayed. It is painful to take the statements again from the actresses who made complaints against the so called actors, they said.
In case the competent court of law directed, disciplinary action should be taken against the guilty, they said. It would be most unfortunate of all to impute the industry as whole for one or two unhappy events occurred in the industry, they said. Amma found fault at the Government for not disclosing the name of the hunter (Vettakkaran).
The controversial Hema Committee report contained 290 pages of which only the contents of 233 pages had been disclosed and the contents of the 57 pages were still secret, they said. The Honorable High Court of Kerala has directed the State Government to produce a copy of the entire report of committee in a sealed cover before it on Augst 22.
The Division Bench was considering a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking a directive to the State Government to initiate criminal proceedings against those who had committed sexual exploitation and harassment of women in the film industry as found by the Hema Committee.
Several legal experts here joined hands with the opinion of the Kerala’s Finance minister K N balagopalan that law empowered the State Government to register cases suo motu if it received information about a cognizable offence, with or without an individual complaint.
The prominent legal experts told this correspondent that the offences framed in the Hema Committee report were of criminal nature for which no need of separate individual complaints from the affected persons. Hema Committee report had indicated of sexual harassment and exploitation of women working in the Malayalam Film Industry.
