Malayalam Actress Assault: Kairali TV Slammed for Insensitivity

What angered people was that the channel insinuated a relationship between the actor and the driver.

Kairali TV angered a large section of it’s viewers with it’s coverage (Photo: The Quint)

The Kerala police seems to have made further headway in the case of prominent Malayalam actor's abduction and rape.

After arresting one of the accused and the actor's driver Martin on Saturday, the police have reportedly arrested two more accused from Coimbatore. With this, the police have been able to nab three out of the seven accused in the case.

According to reports, a team led by Aluva SP raided their hideout in Coimbatore in the wee hours of Sunday. The identities of the two arrested are not yet known.

Insensitive Reporting

Kairali TV, a CPI (M) affiliated Malayalam news channel faced huge criticism after they aired 'details' of the alleged rape.

But what angered people more was that the channel insinuated a relationship between the actor and the driver who engineered the attack. While several media outlets named the victim in their earlier reports, they later retracted it to protect the identity of the victim of sexual crime, as mandated by law.

Not concealing her ire at the media outlet, popular film actor Rima Kallingal took to Facebook on Saturday.

“When a human being is going through the biggest horror of her life you had time and nerve to find sensational stories for your air time?” the actor wrote, addressing Kairali TV’s MD John Brittas.  Actor Prithviraj too, took to Facebook to say that media “reported, misreported and sensationalised” the news.

As disturbing as it was, I refrained from saying something on what happened to one of the most beautiful girls I know because I knew whatever I or any one among our fraternity say, will only be fodder to click baits and TRP mongering," Prithviraj wrote.

Kairali issued an apology for their coverage.

(Photo: The News Minute)

Also Read: Malayalam Actress Rape Case: Police Make Two More Arrests

The Incident

The actor was reportedly traveling in a Mahindra SUV from Thrissur to Kochi.

On Friday night, Suni (the actor's former driver) and a gang of men attacked the actor's vehicle in a van near Angamaly. Martin-her current driver - was part of the plan.

Following the staged accident, the men abducted the actor and took her in their van. They roamed around Kochi city for about 2.5 hours and allegedly assaulted her.

She was later dropped near a director's house and she filed a complaint at the Nedumbassery police station with the help of the director.

The actor filed a complaint in this regard, and an FIR was lodged by the police under various sections of the IPC including 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping a woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) and other relevant sections of the IT act. The men also allegedly took pictures and videos of the incident.

Also Read: Priyadarshan Slams Reports That the Malayalam Actress Was Raped