'Not only women, men also have dignity'; anticipatory bail granted to Balachandra Menon 

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has granted anticipatory bail to actor and director Balachandra Menon in the sexual assault case. The court had earlier granted him interim anticipatory bail till November 21. The anticipatory bail was now granted on the same plea.

The anticipatory bail was granted in the case registered following a complaint by an actress from Aluva. Pointing out that it has been 17 years since the incident happened, the court observed that Balachandra Menon was a Padma Shri awardee and not only women men also have dignity. Balachandra Menon argued that an attempt was being made to extort money from him by threatening. The case was registered by the Thiruvananthapuram Cantonment Police.

The actress alleged in her complaint that she was sexually assaulted on the shooting set. The complaint said that she was sexually assaulted in a hotel near the Secretariat in January 2007. She did not file a complaint out of fear. The incident happened during the shooting of ‘De Ingottu Nokkiye’. She was working in Dubai and was called from there in the name of an offer in the film. She reached the location along with her mother.

There was a birthday party for Balachandra Menon in the hotel. She was summoned to the room to narrate a story. There she saw trying to undress a girl. She got angry and went to her own room. The next night also Balachandra Menon called her to the room. There were three women and other men there. There was an attempt to sexually assault her. The next day, he came to her room and tried to sexually assault her. The actress said that she somehow completed the shooting. She had also filed a complaint against actor Jayasurya for assaulting her during the shooting of the same film.