Veteran actor Jeetendra, who was accused by his cousin for sexually assaulting her, has thrashed all the allegations. The actor's lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee has issued a statement in which the allegations were called ‘baseless and ridiculous’.
The statement read, "Foremost, my client specifically and categorically denies any such incident. Besides even otherwise such baseless, ridiculous and fabricated claims cannot be entertained by any court of law or the law enforcement agencies after a span of almost 50 years".
Siddiquee went all out and said that the law did not give any person liberties to defame a public figure for hidden personal agendas.
The statement further noted, "The statute has provided a justice delivery system through the courts, and the Limitation Act 1963 was specifically enacted to ensure that all genuine complaints are made within a maximum time limit of three years so that a proper investigation is carried out and timely justice is delivered".
The cousin emailed the complaint to the Director General of Police of Himachal Pradesh as she stated that the incident allegedly took place in Shimla in January 1971.
At that time the actor was 28 years old and the complainant was 18. She said that the actor "arranged" for her to join him on a film shooting schedule in Shimla where he later assaulted her in an inebriated state.
Incidentally, an FIR was not registered as the complaint was emailed and for registering an FIR, the complainant's signature was necessary.
The allegations came amidst the '#MeToo' campaign as a part of which women in Hollywood have come forward and spoken about facing sexual assault at the hands of industry men.
The now-75-year-old Bollywood actor, whose real name is Ravi Kapoor, has featured in a host of Hindi films such as 'Farz', 'Humjoli', 'Do Bhai', 'Himmat', and 'Tohfa'. The actor has been happily married to wife Shobha Kapoor and has two kids - Ekta Kapoor, aged 43, and Tusshar Kapoor, aged 42.
(With Agency Inputs)
