(21:52)
MUMBAI: A prominent Bollywood actress has accused actor Aditya Pancholi of allegedly “drugging, raping and blackmailing” her when she was trying to get a toehold in the film industry.
The Versova police and the actress’s lawyers have declined to comment on the issue.
The actress said she was a minor at that time and had narrated her travails to a high-ranking police officer, but no action was initiated against Pancholi.
The details of the actress’s ordeal came in her police statement late last month following which a first information report was lodged against Pancholi by Versova Police Station on June 27, charging him with rape and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The Dindoshi Sessions Court on Tuesday granted interm relief against arrest to Pancholi till July 19 in connection with the rape case, on a personal bond of Rs 30,000 and other conditions.
The details of the actress’s statement running into two-and-half pages, accessed by a Mumbai eveninger Mid-Day said after coming to Mumbai in 2004 when she was around 16 years old, she had met the 38-year old Pancholi, who was almost 22 years older, had two children, including a daughter who was her age.
She said she accompanied Pancholi to a party in 2004 when he reportedly offered her a spiked drink which made her giddy, later offered to drop her home in his SUV, which he stopped en route in Andheri west, forcibly tried to get physical with her and without her knowledge took pictures of her.
At their next meeting, he said that they “shared” a relationship like a husband-wife and would live that way, but when she objected saying he was her father’s age, he blackmailed her with pictures taken inside the car.
Pancholi took advantage of the fact that she was young and new to Mumbai, but between 2004-2006, he kept her at different locations and forced her into a physical relationship by spiking her drinks always with rave party drugs like ‘ecstasy’, click photos and blackmail her.
On one occasion, when she was going to lodge a (police) complaint against him, Pancholi stopped her autorickshaw and assaulted her, but she was rescued by a passer-by.
At that time, she met and informed about the incident to Bipin Behari, IPS officer, then Additional Police Commissioner of Mumbai, and now a DGP-rank officer and Managing Director of Maharashtra State Police Housing & Welfare Corporation.
Between 2004-2005, she shifted to her aunt’s home, but Pancholi even came there with his friends, later when she moved to her own flat in Versova, he made a duplicate key to access it, in one drunken visit he assaulted her, and even locked her up, claimed the actress.
She claimed that Pancholi’s wife, former actress Zarina Wahab was aware of all the issues, but took no steps to help her.
Wahab also hinted that since he was a big actor, she would not take kindly to anybody defaming him, the actress said in her statement.
The actress, who had shifted to Bandra between around 2009, then accused Pancholi of assaulting her ailing sister when she was on a shooting assignment.
When she called up to protest, Pancholi allegedly demanded Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore) from her to compensate whatever he had spent on her, and after she paid him half the amount, he stopped harassing the two sisters for sometime.
After she attained name and fame, Pancholi again started blackmailing her with the old photographs, sent threatening messages to her family and relatives, the actress claimed.
Earlier, while recording his statement in May with the police after the email complaint by the actress’s sister, Pancholi had rubbished all allegations against him. He also submitted a video clip to the police of the actress’s lawyer allegedly threatening to file a rape case against him if he failed to withdraw his defamation complaint against her.
IANS