Ernakulam court orders police probe into Ansiba Hassan's complaint against Lakshmi Priya

The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Ernakulam has directed the Kochi City police to investigate a private complaint filed by actor and Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) member Ansiba Hassan against actor Lakshmi Priya and representatives of CAN Channel.

The complaint alleges that videos containing false and sexually coloured allegations against Ms. Hassan were published and disseminated through social media platforms with the intention of outraging her modesty.

Magistrate Shana Beegam forwarded the complaint to the police for proper investigation under Section 175(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

Ms. Hassan has alleged offences under Sections 75(4) (sexual harassment), 79 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, and Section 119(a) (atrocities against women) of the Kerala Police Act.

She sought the registration of a first information report against Ms. Lakshmi Priya, Sukumar, owner of CAN Channel, and Suresh, who interviewed Ms. Priya.

The magistrate observed that the entire digital content would need to be collected and examined to determine whether the alleged offences were made out. Prima facie, the circumstances alleged suggested that a conspiracy had been hatched among the parties to tarnish the petitioner's dignity.

Counsel for the petitioner contended that after the release of the trailer of the video, two other lengthy videos had been published and disseminated through the same channel, which the petitioner was unable to collect. A police investigation was therefore highly necessary, the magistrate observed.

The court reconsidered the petition following a direction issued by the Kerala High Court. The Station House Officer of the Palarivattom police station submitted that an FIR had not been registered because a preliminary inquiry had found grounds only for defamation.

The complainant also raised suspicions regarding the possible involvement of AMMA president Shwetha Menon in the dissemination of the impugned content. According to the complaint, Ms. Lakshmi Priya had referred to the president in the video, and the manner in which her name was mentioned alongside the highly offensive content directed against the petitioner gave rise to a reasonable suspicion warranting investigation.

Ms. Hassan further alleged that the president had contacted certain social media influencers to propagate a false narrative against her, and that the respondent had used the president's hashtag in the video, giving rise to additional suspicion regarding her possible involvement.