Prominent businessman Boby Chemmanur was arrested on Wednesday by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the sexual harassment case filed by Malayalam actress Honey Rose, police said here. He was taken into custody from Wayanad on Wednesday morning and brought to Kochi in a police jeep by road in the evening.
Visuals aired by news channels showed a police team blocking the businessman’s car and taking him into custody at a tea estate in Wayanad.
Later, he was taken to a police camp in Puthurvayal before being transported to Kochi.
Earlier, Kochi city police had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the allegations of sexual harassment filed by the actress against Chemmanur, a jeweller. He was booked under non-bailable sections following Rose’s complaint.
The businessman has been charged under Section 75(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for making sexually coloured remarks as a form of sexual harassment, and Section 67 of the IT Act for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form, the police said.
Before his arrest, Bobby Chemmannur denied any wrongdoing.Bobby Chemmanur rejected Honey Rose’s charges, claiming he did not use any derogatory terms as alleged by her.
“She attended two of my inauguration events. We danced… I used to tell jokes. She seemed to have no issue with those things. And now she complained to me after months,” the businessman was quoted by PTI as saying.
“I had compared Honey Rose to Kunti Devi from the Mahabharata, and that is true. At that time, she did not file a complaint. I only learned of it now,” “There was no wrong intention behind it. Calling someone Kunti Devi is not inappropriate. Stars are often adorned with jewellery at such events, as has happened many times before. Neither Honey nor I found anything wrong with it, so I don’t understand why this complaint is being filed now. I believe it was a misunderstanding,” he added.
Chemmanur owns a jewellery brand in Kerala and, according to his website, is also the founder of Life Vision Charitable Trust, a philanthropic organisation. His website claims that Boby Chemmanur undertook a record-breaking 812-kilometer marathon in April 2014 from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram to create the “world’s largest blood bank.”
The issue came to light for the first time on Sunday when the actress posted on Facebook, accusing an individual of stalking her and making sexually inappropriate remarks through various media platforms, which she claimed outraged her modesty.
However, she did not reveal the culprit’s identity at that time.
The issue intensified after several people posted offensive comments on her post, prompting Rose to contact the police. The Kochi Central Police have registered a case against 30 people and arrested one of them on this complaint.
Rose, on Tuesday, again came up with a fresh social media post revealing the identity of the person against whom she made sexual harassment allegations in her first complaint.
In the post addressing Boby Chemmannur, she said she filed a complaint against him at the Kochi Central police station. She also warned others with a “similar mindset” to face legal action.
Rejecting the actress’s charges, Chemmanur, however, had said there were no such issues between them as raised by her. He claimed that he didn’t use any derogatory terms, as alleged by her, and he always interacted with her in a friendly manner.
Rose is known for her roles in a handful of movies in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. (PTI)
