New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the interim protection from arrest granted to Malayalam film actor Siddique in an alleged rape case. A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma extended its September 30 interim order granting him interim protection from arrest. in the case and directed them to cooperate in the investigation.

The bench passed the order after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Siddique, said he had a bad throat and sought some time to argue the matter.

At first, Rohatgi said that the investigating agency is repeatedly asking the actor about his phone and laptop which he had in 2016 but does not have now.
He said that Siddique met the complainant only once and the investigating agency is also looking for his passport and Aadhaar number.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Kerala police, said Siddique appeared before them but was not cooperating with the investigation and was not giving evasive answers.

On October 22, the supreme court extended the interim protection from arrest by two weeks.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma allowed Siddique to file his rejoinder to the status report filed by the Kerala Police, which alleged non-cooperation in the investigation on his part.

Siddique had earlier sought time to file a rejoinder to the status report filed by the Kerala police and claimed to have cooperated with the police investigation.

The Kerala Police in its status report alleged that the veteran actor obstructed the investigation and destroyed electronic devices besides deleting his social media accounts.