The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the interim protection from arrest till further orders granted to Malayalam film actor Siddique in an alleged rape case.

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

Senior advocate V Giri, appearing for Siddique sought time to file a rejoinder affidavit to the status report but claimed that his client had been cooperating with the police's investigation.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Kerala police, said Siddique was hindering the investigation and had destroyed electronic devices besides deleting social media accounts.

The bench pointed out the survivor had lodged the complaint eight years after the incident.

Siddique, who was booked for offences under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), has claimed in his plea that complainant woman had subjected him to a "prolonged campaign of harassment and false accusations since 2019".

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