Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Suresh Gopi on Tuesday accused the media of misleading the public about the Malayalam film industry through its coverage of allegations of sexual abuse against actors and directors, Onmanorama reported.

The actor-turned-politician said that courts will decide on the veracity of the allegations.

Gopi, the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala’s Thrissur, was responding to media queries about recent allegations of sexual harassment and abuse made by women in the Malayalam film industry against directors and actors, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA M Mukesh.

This came against the backdrop of the Justice Hema Committee report on sexual harassment and gender inequality in the Malayalam film industry being made public.

Gopi alleged on Tuesday that sexual abuse allegations that emerged in recent days were merely fodder for the media.

“This is all food for you [media], is what I understand,” he said, according to PTI. “You can use it to make money. [There is] no problem with that. But these issues are before the court, and it has the intelligence and logic to arrive at a decision regarding them.”

Gopi accused the media of “making people fight each other” for its gains.

“The complaints are in the form of allegations at the moment,” the BJP MP said. “What are you telling people? Are you the court? You are not. The court will decide.”

Allegations against actor Mukesh

Actor Minu Muneer on Monday alleged that Mukesh, along with actors Maniyanpilla Raju, Idavela Babu and Jayasurya, had physically and verbally abused her while working on a project in 2013.

Mukesh represents the Kollam Assembly constituency.

In a post on Facebook, Muneer also named advocate Chandrasekharan, and production controllers Noble and Vichu.

“I tried to cooperate and continue working, but the abuse became unbearable,” she said. “As a result, I was forced to leave the Malayalam film industry and relocate to Chennai.”

The allegations came a day after senior Malayalam actor Siddique resigned as the general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists after an actor accused him of raping her when she was younger.

Additionally, Malayalam director Ranjith resigned as the chairman of the state-run Kerala Chalachitra Academy, days after actor Sreelekha Mitra accused him of sexually harassing her in 2009.

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Hema committee report on Malayalam cinema: ‘Incident by incident, many icons started crumbling’