BOMBAY TIMES (January 14, 2019)

Director Rajkumar Hirani, who has made films like the Munna Bhai series, 3 Idiots, PK and Sanju, has been reportedly accused of sexually harassing a woman. She has alleged that the filmmaker sexually abused her on more than one occasion, over six months, between March and September 2018. A website has reported that the alleged incident took place during the post-production work on his last release, Sanju.

It’s learnt that the accuser in question sent out an email on November 3, 2018, addressing Rajkumar’s business associate, filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, also marking Anupama Chopra (his wife), a Director with Vinod Chopra Films Pvt. Ltd, scriptwriter Abhijat Joshi, who has often collaborated with Hirani, and Shelly Chopra, the director of their upcoming film, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga. Hirani’s lawyer has reportedly denied the allegations. The matter is being investigated.

The accusations have put considerable pressure on Chopra and Hirani’s partnership. While the June 27, 2018, teaser of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga included Rajkumar Hirani Films as the co-producer, the trailer of the film, which released later on December 26, 2018, had no mention of him.
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MUMBAI MIRROR (January 14, 2019)

Rajkumar Hirani, one of Bollywood’s top filmmakers who has directed blockbusters like 3 Idiots, PK, and the Munna Bhai series, finds himself in the midst of the #MeToo storm with a woman he worked with accusing him of sexual abuse and harassment.

According to a report published by HuffPost India, the woman has alleged that she was targeted by Hirani while working on the Ranbir Kapoor-starrer, Sanju, last year. The assault allegedly took place on more than one occasion and continued over a six month period between March and September 2018 when post-production work on the film was in progress.

The complainant has levelled these allegations in an email, dated November 3, 2018, to Hirani’s Sanju co-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra. She also marked the mail to Chopra’s wife and film journalist Anupama Chopra, Hirani’s co-writer Abhijat Joshi and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s sister Shelly Chopra Dhar. Huffpost India also claimed to have verified the claims with the woman and her friends.

Hirani, on his part, refuted the allegations, calling them “false, malicious and mischievous”.

The HuffPost report says that the director “refused to answer any questions, but shared printouts of text messages and emails exchanged between him and the complainant over the course of six months, to claim that he had a normal professional relationship with the complainant.”

In response to queries sent by HuffPost India, Hirani’s lawyer Anand Desai replied on December 5, 2018, saying, “These communications establish that the allegations made against our client to you, that have given rise to your queries, are false and completely unjustified.”

Hirani also issued a statement on Sunday evening after the HuffPost article went viral.

“I was completely shocked when these allegations were brought to my notice about two months back. I had suggested immediately that it is essential to take this matter to any committee or any legal body. The complainant has chosen to go to the media instead. I want to very strongly state that this is a false, malicious and mischievous story being spread with the sole intention of destroying my reputation,” the statement read.

In her email to the Chopras, the woman claimed that Hirani first made a sexually suggestive remark to her on April 9, 2018, and then sexually assaulted her at his home-office.

She wrote: “I remember forming these words on my lips – ‘Sir. This is wrong... Because of this power structure. You being the absolute power and me being a mere assistant, a nobody — I will never be able to express myself to you’.”

The complainant further said that she always regarded Hirani as a “father figure” and that she was forced to maintain a facade of normalcy during work because her father is fighting a terminal illness and she could not give up her job. “If Hirani said I wasn’t good, my future would be in jeopardy,” she wrote in the email.

While Vidhu Vinod Chopra did not respond to the complainant’s allegations, his wife Anupama confirmed to HuffPost India that the woman had shared an account with her and Vinod Chopra Films (VCF) has since set up a committee to address complaints of sexual harassment.

“I’ve met the complainant twice. Both times, I have offered my full support and recommended that she take the complaint to a legal body or a neutral party since we cannot be arbitrators or judges on this. We also offered to set up an ICC (Internal Complaints Committee) at VCF (which we have set up since then) even though a VCF ICC could not have taken up the case since she was an RHF (Rajkumar Hirani Films) employee at the time. These are two separate companies,” Anupama was quoted as saying in the HuffPost report.

Anupama further added that the complainant stayed at “our house for two nights. We also provided the number of an expert on the issue, so she could talk to a professional. She said she needed time to think through how she will take it forward. I did not want in any way to pressurise her or steer her in any direction. As Vinod and I told her then, she has our full support and we are fully respectful of whatever decision she has taken.”

Mirror tried to contact Hirani, the Chopras and Joshi, but they were not available for comments. 

Sunil Baghel (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 6, 2018)

Even as Salman Khan’s childhood friend Sajid Nadiadwala cancelled the success party of Baaghi 2 in the wake of the superstar getting a five year sentence in the 1998 black buck poaching case, Nadiadwala and scores of ‘Bhai’s’ friends and fans need not worry. Going by the history of the case that has lasted two decades, Salman appears to be on a good footing as far as securing bail is concerned.

One of the primary reasons why he shouldn’t find it so tough to secure bail (from a sessions court in this case) is the fact that he has been out on bail during the entire trial process, and he has been present for the legal proceedings whenever summoned.

Salman’s lawyer Anand Desai said the legal team had already filed an appeal against the judgment and the sessions court was likely to hear the appeal for suspension of the sentence/bail on Friday.

The statement also said that the judgment “came as a surprise” and that the acquittal of all the five coaccused implied that “Salman was out hunting alone in the middle of the night in a remote area outside Jodhpur”.

In a 201-page judgment, the Jodhpur CJM while deciding the case, observed that the witnesses’ deposition with respect to the other accused “only proved their presence in the same vehicle as Salman”, and not that they asked him to fire gunshots.

Due to pendency, it takes a few years for appeals to be heard, and, owing to his acquittals from higher courts in the cases that he was convicted earlier by the respective trial courts, Salman can’t be called a convict for any other case – a point that would be referred to by his lawyers before the Jodhpur Sessions Court, if needed.

In all probability, whichever side loses in the sessions court will challenge the order before the Rajasthan High Court.

20 Years Later, Superstar Salman Given 5 Years’ Jail For Shooting Blackbucks; Co-Stars Saif, Sonali, Neelam And Tabu Let Off
Bhanupratap Singh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; April 6, 2018)

Jodhpur: Nearly 20 years after his infamous blackbuck hunts made national headlines, the law finally caught up with Bollywood megastar Salman Khan on Thursday. A trial court sentenced the actor to five years in prison for poaching two of the protected antelopes at Kankani village in 1998.

Salman, who was present in court with his sisters Alvira and Arpita, spent the night in Jodhpur central jail, where he was taken soon after the verdict was pronounced.

Salman’s co-stars Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre, who allegedly accompanied him during the hunt on the night of October 1-2, 1998, were given the benefit of doubt and acquitted. All of them were camping in Jodhpur at that time for the shooting of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’.

“Khan is a film star whose actions are followed by the common man and still he shot dead two innocent and mute blackbucks, a Schedule-I animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, so he cannot be granted benefit under the Probation of Offenders Act as sought by the defence,” chief judicial magistrate (Jodhpur rural) Dev Kumar Khatri wrote in the 201-page judgment.

Salman’s lawyer H M Saraswat swiftly filed a bail application for the star in the sessions court which is on the same premises. The plea will be heard on Friday. Saraswat said an appeal against the conviction too would be filed soon after going through the trial court’s verdict.

The defence lawyer had pleaded for leniency for Salman under the Probation of Offenders Act. But the judge said the benefit was being denied also because incidents of illegal hunting were on the rise. The court found Khan guilty under Section 9/51 of the Wildlife Protection Act and also imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000. This was the third poaching case against Salman during the shooting of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’. Lower courts convicted him in two other cases but he was subsequently acquitted by the HC.

The Rajasthan government had appealed against Salman’s previous acquittals and two cases are pending in the Supreme Court since October 2016.

Apart from Salman’s four co-stars, another co-accused, Dushyant Singh, a local travel and transport agent who was allegedly with them when the crime was committed, was also acquitted in the Kankani case.

Anand Desai, another lawyer of the Bollywood star, said in a statement: “It (the verdict) just came as a surprise, as the entire investigation and facts were the same as those for which Salman had been acquitted by the high court of Rajasthan in two cases and even by the trial court in an Arms Act case concerning the same night.”

While acquitting Salman’s co-accused, the judge said though their presence at the crime scene has been shown in the statements of witnesses, their involvement in the crime has not been established beyond doubt. The prosecution said it would appeal against all acquittals.

Youths from the Bishnoi community and wildlife lovers who had gathered outside the court burst crackers as soon as they learnt about Salman’s conviction. Mahipal Bishnoi, lawyer for the Bishnoi Tiger Force, an organisation known for protecting blackbucks even at the cost of their lives, said: “We are happy that Khan has been sentenced, but we will ask the government to appeal against those who have been acquitted in this case.”

Public prosecutor Bhawani Singh Bhati said the statements of witness Chhogaram, DNA fingerprinting and the postmortem reports of the blackbucks helped in nailing Salman. “We were able to establish that the two blackbucks died from gunshots and that these were fired by Salman,” said Bhati, who had demanded maximum punishment of six years in jail for the actor.

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 2, 2014)