The controversy over a host of emails sent allegedly by an “impostor” pretending to be Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan to Kangana Ranaut resurfaced on Saturday, as the crime branch sleuths of the Mumbai police recorded the statement of “Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai” actor.
Four years after the actor lodged a complaint with the Mumbai police alleging that someone impersonating him was sending e-mails from a bogus e-mail ID between 2013 and 2014 to Kangana, the officials of the Crime Intelligence Unit of the Crime Branch-CID recorded Hrithik’s statement in connection with the investigations into his complaint.
It may be recalled that Hrithik had in 2016 lodged an impersonation complaint with the police after a spat with Kangana, with whom he had acted Kites (2010) and Krrish 3 (2013).
Earlier, in the wake of Kangana calling him a “silly-ex” during an interview, Hrithik had sent her a legal notice demanding a public apology from her. However, Kangana Ranaut refused to apologise and claimed hat the two had been romantically involved in 2014. She sent a counter-notice to Hrithik Roshan, asking him to take his notice back or face a criminal case.
In his legal notice, Hrithik had that he was being harassed mentally by Kangana. The notice claimed that Kangana had sent him a staggering 1,439 emails, to which he never responded. He had also alleged that the actress was telling people that she was in a romantic relationship with her.
Among other things, Hrithik had claimed that Kangana had been in touch with was an imposter, pretending to be Hrithik Roshan.
On her part, Kangana had claimed that the particular email ID used for exchanging mails with him had been given to her by Hrithik Roshan himself. She had also said that the email had been kept private so as to prevent it from having a negative impact on the divorce proceedings between Hrithik Roshan and his wife Sussanne Khan that was going on then.
Based on Hrithik’s complaint, the police had registered a case under section 419 (cheating by personation) of IPC and sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act against an unknown person at the Cyber Police Station.
As part of the investigations, the Cyber Cell of the Mumbai police had also taken Hrithik’s laptop and phone for investigation.
In the past, the police forensic experts could not ascertain any facts about the email ID which was traced to the US and hence filed a nil report in June 2017. In December last year, Hrithik’s lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani had approached Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and requested him to look into the actor’s complaint, after the case was transferred to the Crime Branch's CIU.
Hrithik's lawyers had told the Police chief that despite the Magistrate's order directing the police to return the actor's laptop and mobile phone submitted for the probe, he had not collected it yet to enable the police complete the probe and catch the real culprit.
On her part, an unfazed Kangana called Hritik “mera silly-ex and made fun of him as the actor appeared before the Crime branch sleuths to record his statement “Duniya kahan se kahan pahunch gayi magar mera silly ex abhi bhi waheen hai usi modh pe jahan yeh waqt dobara laut ke nahi jane wala”.
This is not the first time that Kangana has made fun of Hrithik. In October 2018, the actress had slammed Hrithik by saying that “people who keep wives as trophies and young girls as mistresses should be boycotted”.”There are men who make false promises of love and marriage to a girl to get them into a relationship that is also a type of harassment. There are married men who keep their wives as trophies and keep young girls as their mistresses like Hrithik...They lure young beautiful girls with the promise of marriage and later try to prove them mad. Nobody should work with such people. They should be boycotted,” Kangana had told a news television channel Justifying the treatment being meted out to film maker Vikas Bahl, a former member of the now dissolved Phantom Films who has been accused of sexual harassment by a couple of actresses, Kangana said: “There are many people like Vikas Bahl, he is not the only one. We still have a lot of work to do so, we should not start the celebrations as yet. We have a long way to go. We have to make this place (world) absolutely safe for woman”.
Kangana’s comments against Hrithik had come three days after the actor tweeted in the midst of “Me Too” movement: “It is impossible for me to work with any person if he/she is guilty of such grave misconduct. I am away and have access to only sporadic information. I have requested the producers of Super 30 to take stock of the apparent facts and take a harsh stand if need be. This is not to be hushed or brushed under the carpet. All proven offenders must be punished and all exploited people must be empowered and given strength to speak up.”
Hritik’s comment came in respect of Bahl, who is the director of Super 30, a biopic on the life of mathematician Anand Kumar and his educational programme Super 30. Incidentally, Kangana's Queen co-star Nayani Dixit had accused Bahl of sexual misconduct.
After a reported affair between the two during the filming of Krrish 3, Kangana and Hrithik have been engaged in a legal war. While the actress has all along insisted that she had affair with Hrithik, the actor has steadfastly denied any relations between them.
