Jeetendra accused of sexually assaulting cousin, actor denies allegations

Veteran Bollywood actor Jeetendra has been accused of sexually harassing his cousin at a hotel in Shimla during the shooting of a film 47 years ago.

A woman claiming to be related to the actor, whose given name is Ravi Kapoor, sent a two-page complaint to the HP director general of police seeking registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against him for a case of "sexual assault" when he was allegedly 28 and she 18.

The letter describes the alleged act of sexual assault in detail. She stated that Jeetendra picked her up from her home on the fateful day and there were two other men in the car apart from him.

He brought me to his hotel room which contained two separate beds," said the complaint. "Tired from the journey I went to sleep in the far bed." She however alleged that he later joined the bed for a while. She said he "smelled strongly of alcohol.'' After assaulting her sexually, he finally left her alone, separated the beds and "we slept silently in the room that night," she claimed.

However, the veteran Bollywood actor Jeetendra denied the allegations of sexual assault made against him by his cousin.

Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, representing actor Jeetendra, said the complaint made baseless claims. He said, "Foremost my client categorically denies any such incident. Even otherwise such baseless, ridiculous and fabricated claims cannot be entertained by any court or police after a span of almost 50 years."

"Foremost, my client specifically and categorically denies any such incident," Rizwan Siddiquee, the lawyer representing the actor, said. "The law does not give any person any rights or liberties of making any baseless, ridiculous or fabricated claims against any man publicly and seek to defame him with a hidden personal agenda."

He said the timing of the complaint seems to be a "miserable effort made by a jealous competitor to disrupt the business activities" of the actor. "Such efforts are therefore in all fairness treated with the contempt it truly deserves," Siddiquee said.

OneIndia News