Earlier, we reported about an FIR filed at the Oonnukal Police Station in relation to a sexual assault accusation against actor Nivin Pauly from a Malayali woman in Dubai. The actor had immediately denied the accusation through social media and a subsequent press conference. Later, the woman claimed that a group of people, including producer AK Sunil and Nivin, sexually assaulted her after locking her up in a flat in Dubai from December 14 to 16. The latest development is that Vineeth Sreenivasan has said that Nivin worked on their film Varshangalkku Shesham in the said timeline at Nucleus Mall in Kochi. Speaking to Reporter TV, Vineeth said, "We first shot the portion inside the theatre where Nivin's character watches the film (within the film). There were many people to form the audience in the theatre, so you would not find it difficult to prove this. I would give the necessary details myself." Vineeth went on to add, "Then, we proceeded to shoot the portions set outside the mall where Nivin's film star character delivers the now-viral speech."
The actor-director emphasised that Nivin was with him and his Varshangalkku Shesham team from December 14 to the wee hours of December 15 last year before he left for the shoot of a web series, titled Pharma. Even in the press conference, Nivin mentioned shooting for Pharma last December.
Vineeth also substantiated that it is not just his "belief" that Nivin was with him in the days where he allegedly played a part in the crime. "You would get plenty of evidence proving that Nivin was with me the whole time, from CCTV footage to witness testimonies, including from producer Visakh Subramaniam, art director Sabu Ram, and anchor-actor Parvathy R Krishna, at Nucleus Mall," asserted Vineeth.
Nivin is named as the sixth accused in the FIR. A Special Investigation Team has been formed to investigate the sexual assault complaint, among other such incidents concerning Malayalam cinema after the publication of the Hema Committee Report.
