Mumbai: A first information report was filed with the Versova police on Tuesday on the basis of actor Payal Ghosh’s complaint accusing film director Anurag Kashyap of sexual misconduct in 2014.

A police officer said they would probe the matter as the complaint was linked to an incident dating six years back, before deciding further course of action. Several celebrities, including three actors named by Ghosh in her allegations as Kashyap’s victims, have refuted her claims.

Ghosh and her lawyer tried to file an FIR at Oshiwara police station on Monday but were asked to come back with a written complaint. Payal’s lawyer Nitin Satpute said, “An FIR has been lodged for rape, wrongful restraint, wrongful confinement and outraging the modesty of a woman. The statement of the victim has been recorded.” He said they were told to file it at Versova police station as the incident had occurred under its jurisdiction.

Payal first tweeted about the alleged assault on September 19, tagging the office of the Prime Minister seeking action. When asked why she decided to speak up now after so many years, she told a news channel, “I tried to say it before also when the #MeToo movement had started, but my family and friends stopped me... your career will be spoiled,’ they told me.” She also said she did not have proof.

In reaction to the allegations, Kashyap has tweeted a statement by his lawyer: “My client, Anurag Kashyap, has been deeply pained by the false allegations… these... are completely false, malicious and dishonest.”

Three actors — Richa Chadha, Mahie Gill and Huma Qureshi — who, Payal claimed, were mentioned by Kashyap as having been exploited by him have refuted the allegations. One of them has even sent her a legal notice for defamation.

On Monday Richa Chadha tweeted: “I have sent a legal notice to Payal Ghosh for ‘falsely (dragging)’ my name into her allegations...” Richa on Tuesday tweeted: “Am sending a registered post also so there are no excuses.” Richa’s lawyer Saveena Bedi Sachar issued a statement, “Our client… condemns the act of her name being unnecessarily and falsely dragged in a defamatory manner into controversies and allegation being recently raised by third parties.”

Huma Qureshi tweeted on Tuesday, “Anurag and I last worked together in 2012-13 and he is a dear friend and an extremely talented director. In my personal experience and to my knowledge he has neither misbehaved with me or anyone else. However, anyone who claims to be abused must report it to the authorities, the police and the judiciary... I feel angry not just for myself but also every woman whose years of hard work... gets reduced to such baseless conjecture and allegations in their workplace.”

Reacting to it, Mahie Gill had said, “It is very easy to take names just because he launched us. All I want to say is that I have known Anurag for a long time now. We may not be in touch but I am sure Anurag can never speak like this about any of his actors.”  

Dutta files protest petition against clean chit given to Nana Patekar; says witnesses were not examined, electronic evidence ‘botched up’
Sharmeen Hakim (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 6, 2019)

Rebutting the clean chit given by the Oshiwara police to actor Nana Patekar and three others in the sexual harassment case against them, actor Tanushree Dutta has accused the police of carrying out a “farcical show of investigation” and sought transfer of probe as well as action against the police officers concerned.

In her 40-page protest petition filed in the Andheri metropolitan magistrate court, Dutta has given a breakdown of how crucial witnesses supporting her case were allegedly not examined and electronic evidence was botched up. She has alleged that unlike victims of sexual harassment she was never called to record her statement before a court. She has further claimed that most of the 13 witnesses ‘picked by the police’ were either connected to the accused or working with them.

A magistrate will now decide whether to accept the police’s clean chit given to the accused in June, reject the report or order further investigation. In the June summary report, the police had called Tanushree’s claims ‘false’.

Last year, Dutta had accused Nana Patekar of molesting her during the shoot of a film song in 2008. She had also accused director Rakesh Sarang, producer Samee Siddiqui and choreographer Ganesh Acharya of cover-up. Dutta spoke out after Siddiqui made derogatory remarks against her, saying she was “on her period” to have staged a walkout from the film set so many years ago.

In her petition filed through advocate Nitin Satpute, Dutta has alleged that despite being a complainant in the case she was never informed by the police about the ‘B’ Summary (clean-chit) report. She also said she was for forced to pay for a copy of the report.

Dutta has said that reporter Janice Sequeira interviewed her soon after the incident but Sequera’s statement was ignored by the police. She said that the assistant director of the film was also an eyewitness, and while her statement was partially recorded she was never called to the police station to complete its recording. She has also alleged that another journalist, who was present at the film shoot, was not examined. As per the petition, the police did not even bother to record the statement of the person who had conducted the sting on producer Samee Siddiqui – he had allegedly said “ho gaya hoga aisa touch” about Patekar.

Dutta said two other eyewitnesses, a hair dresser and spot boy, were never called to the police station for recording of statement. She has also claimed that the police recorded the statements of unrelated people – Sudhir Pande, Ramesh Torani and Ratan Jain who were working for CINTAA at the time – and were not present during the incident.

She said that the statements that accompany seizure of the CD against Siddiqui’s “sting” have vital parts missing. She said a 65(B) – a document certifying the authenticity of any content on an electronic device – has deliberately not been taken by the police.

Dutta said Nilesh Pawaskar, the lawyer who had advised her at the time, failed to disclose to her that he had represented Nana Patekar at some time and asked her only to take up the payment issue with the producers despite knowing all that had transpired. Pawaskar told Mirror that the allegations are false and the fact that he represented Patekar was public knowledge. “She should have been better advised by her lawyer.” Pawaskar said.

As police close sexual harassment case against Nana Patekar, here is what they told the court about why Tanushree's allegations don't stand
Faizan Khan (MID-DAY; June 14, 2019)

The Oshiwara police on Wednesday filed a closure report in the form of a B summary and submitted it to the Andheri metropolitan magistrate court in the sexual harassment case filed by actor Tanushree Dutta against actor Nana Patekar, choreographer Ganesh Acharya, producer Samee Siddiqui and director Rakesh Sarang. They have listed six counts on the basis of which they filed the B summary, one of which says that police investigations revealed no evidence against Patekar. Dutta and her lawyer lashed out at the cops for only recording statements that supported Patekar.

The closure report was filed eight months after Dutta filed a case against Patekar, Acharya, Siddiqui and Sarang, alleging Patekar misbehaved with her in 2008 on the set of the movie Horn Ok Pleassss, while shooting for a special dance number. Confirming the development, senior police inspector at Oshiwara police station, Shailesh Pasalwad, said "The B Summary report has been filed before the Andheri Magistrate court as we have not found any evidence against the accused."

Another officer said, "Since the matter was 10 years old, we were completely dependent on the statements of witnesses who were present at the time of incident. We recorded 13 statements in the matter, which includes those of cameraman, assistant choreographers, back-up dancers, spot boy and makeup artist. A few witnesses were only aware of the delay during the shoot, but nobody knows if Dutta was sexually harassed."

Following are the six counts under which the report was filed:

Allegations against Patekar
Police investigations revealed that there has been no evidence against Patekar as the dancers, assistant choreographers, junior artists, cameramen who were present at the time of the shoot have not supported Dutta's allegations of sexual harassment.

Allegations against Siddiqui, Sarang
Siddiqui and Sarang had informed Dutta that she would be performing solo and Patekar would make a guest appearance. Police investigations revealed that before the song was shot, Dutta had rehearsed for it at Shariq hall in Andheri west on March 14, 15, 16, 18 and 20, 2008 along with dancer Sanjeev Havaldar, who was filling in for Patekar, which Dutta was fully aware of.

Allegations against Acharya
Dutta had alleged Acharya changed the choreography where Patekar was to touch her. Siddiqui, Sarang and Acharya had allegedly not informed her about the change in the dance sequence. Police report states that assistant choreographer Daisy Shah and Jyoti Kamble have not mentioned any change in choreography in their statements.

Dutta lost crores
Another allegation was that due to the mental stress caused by the incident, Dutta could not resume the shoot and lost crores of rupees. She had also claimed that she complained to CINTAA in March 2009, but they closed the matter without any inquiry. The police investigations revealed that soon after the complaint was made to CINTAA, they called a meeting along with 'AMTPPP officials', in which it was decided that Dutta would be compensated with R5 lakh. In the meeting, Dutta had allegedly had not mentioned about anyone misbehaving with her on the sets.

MNS pressuring cops
In her complaint, Tanushree had alleged that after the incident, the producer, director and choreographer along with MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) workers had pressured cops at the Goregaon police station to ensure her complaint — which her father had gone there to file — was not registered. It was also said that her father recorded his statement mentioning sexual harassment, but the cops did not record it.

The original case papers procured from Goregaon police station state that Dutta had refused to appear before the cops to record her statement claiming she is busy on a shoot. According to the papers, her father had only mentioned an attack on Dutta's car by a group of people. He had not made any allegations of sexual harassment in the case.

Period on TV
Dutta had told cops that Siddiqui mentioned in a clip shown on a news channel that she must have been on her period on the day of the contentious shoot. The cops received the video from the said channel and upon inquiring with Siddiqui, he said the reporter had asked him if Dutta cancelled the shoot due to fever, physical stress or her period, to which Siddiqui said she could have done that because she was on her period.

What Nana Patekar Told The Cops
"On March 26, 2008 , I reached Filmistan Studio between 10 am and 11 am. I was unable to do the dance steps and Ganesh Acharya's assistant was helping me with it. I was taking 25 to 30 minutes to learn one dance step. On the other side of the stage, around 30 to 35 feet away from me, Tanushree was doing her steps with assistant choreographers. Later, she went to her vanity van once she was done. After lunch, we were all on the sets. I and Tanushree were dancing, and there was some distance between me and her, but she suddenly left from the shoot, I don't know why. She locked herself in her vanity van. Acharya and his assistant were trying to speak to her, but she didn't respond. As she didn't turn up, the shoot was cancelled and I left for home. Later, I was told by director Rakesh Sarang that Tanushree has alleged that I had misbehaved with her, which I had clarified at the time while speaking with the media that she is like my daughter. Two days later, I recorded the same sequel with actress Rakhi Sawant. After this episode, I and Tanushree once came face to face at the International Film Festival in Goa, we both made eye contact and smiled at each other. After that I never met her."

Tanushree Says
Dutta and her lawyer lashed out at the police for recording only statements which support Patekar. Dutta said in her statement, "Our witnesses have been silenced by intimidation and fake witnesses have been put forth to weaken the case. What was the rush to file a B summary report when all of my witnesses have not even recorded their statements yet? I'm neither shocked nor surprised; being a woman in India, this is something we all have gotten used to. If rape accused Alok Nath got a clean chit and returned to movies, then it was surely not going to be difficult for harassment accused Nana Patekar to get himself or shall we say buy himself a clean chit to continue to bully hapless young women."

"I am tired of fighting alone against oppressors, bullies and a corrupt system. I have better things to do in life with my talent and skills and I need to focus on those, but please don't take this example to mean that you will not be heard when you speak up. Continue to expose these creeps through social media and other platforms so that in the future, people would think twice before troubling an innocent young girl. I still believe that I will get justice and victory will be mine. How, only time will tell," said Dutta.

Her lawyer Nitin Satpute told mid-day, "Police acted negligently to protect Patekar. The statements of many witnesses have not been recorded yet. The statement of witness Shyni Shetty's statement was not recorded completely, moreover, statements of hairdressers Aliza, Wasim and Mir and seven other witnesses were not recorded. Cops have taken statements of those who know nothing. We will appeal before the court to re-investigate the matter."

Earlier, Satpute had claimed to have an audio recording of one of the witnesses where Patekar can be heard pressuring a witness to not speak. However, that recording has not been submitted to the Oshiwara police yet. Responding to the lawyer's statement, Pasalwad said, "They never came to us with any list of witnesses." mid-day had reported on May 15 in 'Witness statements don't support Tanushree's story' about how Oshiwara police had not gotten a single statement corroborating Dutta's allegations. Cops had said they are helpless as witnesses claimed they were unable to recall what happened during the 2008 shoot.

What Is A 'B-Summary'?
A 'B-Summary' report is filed when the police do not find any evidence against the accused to file a charge sheet and seek trial. If the court accepts it, it would mean that they have acknowledged the clean chit given by the police.

The Six Counts
1. Patekar did not sexually harass Dutta, based on statements of dancers, assistant choreographers, junior artists, cameramen
2. Samee Siddiqui and Rakesh Sarang informed Dutta that Patekar would make a guest appearance
3. Acharya did not change the choreography for Patekar to touch Dutta
4. CINTAA acted on her complaint and ensured Rs 5 lakh compensation
5. Goregaon police station was not pressured to drop case against the accused, according to original papers from police station
6. Siddiqui said on TV, reason Dutta cancelled the shoot was because she was on her period

Tanushree Dutta, who kick-started the #MeToo movement in Bollywood last year, says that actor Nana Patekar, who she had accused of sexual misconduct on the sets of their film Horn OK Pleassss (2009), has not been given a clean chit by the police, contrary to reports
Ismat Tahseen (BOMBAY TIMES; May 18, 2019)

Reports surfaced on Thursday evening about actor Nana Patekar being given a clean chit by the police in the Tanushree Dutta sexual misconduct case. However, Tanushree, speaking to BT from the US, said, “These are just rumours. I have spoken to my advocate Nitin Satpute, who has confirmed it with the police. The investigation is still going on. And yes, it’s true that it’s been slow. As I have mentioned earlier, we had a lot of difficulty in even convincing witnesses to come forth and give their statements. So, only one or two witnesses recorded their statement right after the FIR. After that, we’ve been having a tough time trying to convince other witnesses. Some of them said that they would come forward and speak, but they did not turn up. We got to know that they have been getting dubious calls, semi-threatening stuff, which has got them worried”.

‘IT WAS STRANGE HOW SOME WITNESSES WOULD PROMISE TO SHOW UP AND THEN, EVENTUALLY NOT TURN UP’
Talking about witnesses who have come forward to support Nana Patekar, Tanushree says, “These witnesses are random people, and we don’t know if they were even present on the set that day.” She adds, “As you are aware in film units there is no employer-employee listing that is maintained (at least back then). It’s all informal. So, there is no way to confirm whether that person, who is pretending to be a witness and saying they don’t remember anything, was ever present on the day of the incident that happened ten years ago. What do they mean by saying they don’t remember? This is an attempt to mislead the law. The fact is that, such a thing happened on the set (of Horn OK Pleassss) when there were so many people present and nobody did anything about it. These four people — Nana, choreographer Ganesh Acharya, producer Samee Siddiqui and director Rakesh Sarang — have gotten away with harassing and threatening me. Later on, when I tried to leave, my car got attacked while I was inside the car with my family. All this took place and everyone around chose to keep quiet back then. So, why would they come forth now and speak up against it? I doubt if any of the original people are even being spoken to. Apart from the core team, there were dancers, technicians, etc, but no one knows who these people are, as there is no record maintained of their names. So, everything is dubious. On top of this, we know that our witnesses have been getting calls and are being told, ‘Oh, why do you want to get into this? Aap ko court ke chakkar lagney padengey, aur baad mein yeh hoga, woh hoga’. A lot of times, people don’t report harassment as they think, ‘Kya hoga? Kuch nahi hoga’. I do hope things speed up with the case; that would be an ideal situation. In fact, initially, when I was still in India, I was hoping that all of witness statements would be done and over with, in a couple of months. It was strange how some of witnesses would promise to show up and then, eventually not turn up.”

‘THE INVESTIGATION IS STILL GOING ON AND WE ARE TRYING TO CONVINCE OUR WITNESSES TO COME FORWARD’
Tanushree says that this battle is far from over for her and everyone involved. “This is an attempt to set an example for the rest of the country as I think that we really need to buckle up our belts when it comes to women’s safety and protection in our country. There has been no ‘clean chit’ or even ‘almost clean chit’ given to Nana, as reported. I have confirmed this with my advocate, who has confirmed the same with the cops. There has been no statement insinuating this. The investigation is on and we are trying to convince our witnesses to come forward. It is not over, and any kind of result or judgment will only come after the investigation is fully over,” she explains.

‘WOMEN STILL DEAL WITH STIGMA OF HARASSMENT AND THEY DON’T SPEAK UP’
Though the going has been tough, Tanushree stuck to her decision. What motivates her? “Well, something had to be done. I have suffered long enough because of the results of that incident. Life did get very tough at times and I don’t want that for anybody else,” she says, adding, “Dealing with the case is a bit of a bother as I am busy with my life here in the US. But when I have started something, I will stick by it. I know that this is not just about me anymore. I have moved on in my life. But there is an entire nation that is still dealing with a lot of stigma when it comes to harassment and crimes of sexual nature. Women still deal with stigma and they don’t speak up. They suffer in silence. If I can help make the situation better, then why not? If someone like me can be harassed, troubled and attacked and nothing comes of it, then what hope is there for those women, who do 9-to-5 jobs in the city and travel by public transport on a daily basis. Many actresses in Bollywood — for fear of losing their jobs — have probably still kept quiet. I know instances of heinous things happening to popular actresses, but they have never spoken about it and they probably never will. But I am in a position to do something about it and if I can make a difference, I will.”