Actresses Shweta Menon and Kukku Parameswaran have resigned from the internal complaints committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), in protest against the film body's inaction against rape-accused actor-producer Vijay Babu. Actress Maala Parvathi had also resigned from the committee.
The AMMA had on Sunday said Vijay Babu had given a letter to the organisation saying he will stay away from the executive committee in light of the allegations against him. "The committee has discussed the letter given by Vijay Babu and accepted his demand," AMMA had said. However, Maala Parvathi resigned because she felt AMMA's decision to not take any disciplinary action against Vijay Babu was sending out the wrong message. Speaking to reporters on Monday, she also said it was totally unacceptable on the part of Vijay Babu to name the survivor on his FB live.
In her resignation letter, Shweta, who is president of the ICC, said she believed there was no relevance for the ICC in AMMA, News Minute reported. As Shweta, Maala Parvathi and Kukku resign, the ICC is left with actress Rachana Narayanankutty.
Vijay Babu has been charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a female actor and disclosing the survivor's identity through a Facebook live session. The police already made it clear that "prima facie that is a proved case" and a lookout notice had been issued against the accused who reportedly left for Dubai after the case was registered on April 22. On April 29, he moved the Kerala High Court for anticipatory bail.
The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) also came down heavily on film bodies maintaining silence on the issue.