Washington DC [USA], June 11 (ANI): Jussie Smollett, who remained low key after allegedly being attacked by masked men, is back on social media with a message on Pride.

According to Fox News, the actor shared his first Instagram post since January when he alleged that he'd been a victim of a hate crime -- a claim which was later debunked by Chicago cops following an extensive investigation.

On Monday, the 'Empire' actor shared a video clip of the inspiring speech by Tarell Alvin McCraney at the Tony Awards.

"So much PRIDE," Smollett captioned the clip.

It is believed that the actor found the Pride Month to be apt for him to return back on social media. The last post the 36-year-old shared was on January 28, before the alleged incident.

A day after his last post, Smollett had filed a police report alleging that two masked men attacked him, tied a rope around his neck and poured bleach on him. Smollett, who is black and openly gay, claimed that the men even made racist and homophobic comments at him. "This is MAGA country," one of the men shouted.

After a thorough investigation, police said Smollett narrated the entire incident to gain publicity for his career.

Later, he was arrested for filing a false police report and faced 16 counts of disorderly conduct from the incident.

However, during a short hearing in March, the office of Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx dropped all the charges against Smollett, though his bail was renounced.

All this while, Smollett maintained his innocence, and strongly denied all the accusations against him.

Once all the charges were dropped on March 26 against the singer, the court approved a request by his lawyer to seal the case. Several news organisations asked the judge to reverse the decision.

Smollett's lawyers said that since their client is found not guilty, he has "the right to be left alone." But Judge Watkins disagreed and on May 23 ordered that Smollett's criminal case file be unsealed.

A week after the judge's decision, the Chicago Police Department released the case documents. "They included more than 460 pages of case reports, arrest files and supplementary files," Anthony Guglielmi, Chicago police spokesperson had told Fox News on May 30. (ANI)