Having registered a First Information Report (FIR) against senior actor Nana Patekar and three others based on a complaint of sexual harassment lodged by actress Tanushree Dutt, the Oshiwara police on Thursday began investigations into the 10-year-old case.
Ahead of summoning Patekar and three others accused — choreographer Ganesh Acharya, producer Samee Siddiqui and director Rakesh Sarang — for questioning, the police will record the statements of witnesses in the case in the coming days on the incident that took place on the sets of a film on March 26, 2008.
“Before summoning Patekar and other accused in the case for questioning, we will first record the statements of the witnesses in the case,” a senior police officer investigating the case said.
Accompanied by her lawyer Nitin Satpute, Tanushree visited the Oshiwara police station on Wednesday night and recorded her statement in continuation of a written complaint that she had lodged with the same police station on October 6.
After she recorded her statement, the Oshiwara police formally registered an FIR against Patekar and three others under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty), 354-A (Assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe her) and section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty o a woman) of Indian Penal Code.
In a related development, the Oshirwara police are looking into the complaint lodged against Patekar by Tanushree on October 6 under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty), 354-A (Assault or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe her) and section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty o a woman) of Indian Penal Code.
Talking to media persons after actress-client recorded her statement, Satpute said: “After our insistence, the police recorded my client’s statement in English instead of Marathi. We wanted the police to record her statement in English as we did not want a repeat of what happened ten years ago”. In 2008, Tanushree’s father Tapan Kumar Dutta had filed a complaint with the Oshiwara police and nothing much had been done on the complaint then.
On behalf of Tanushree, her lawyer also submitted a 40-page statement on the incident to the police and also the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission (MSWC).
In her complaint lodged with the police on October 6, Tanushree has alleged that the incident took place on March 26, 2008 during the shooting of a song in the film “Horn Ok Pleaseee” . The entire was to be picturised on the actress, while Patekar had only line in the song. She said that before the shoot, she had made it clear to the producer and director that she would not enact or perform any lewd, vulgar or uncomfortable steps in the particular song.
“On the 4th day of the shoot, 26th March 2008, while shooting was going on, Nana Patekar’s behaviour was inappropriate towards me. He was on the set despite his work in the song being over and he was grabbing me by the arms and pushing me around on the pretext of teaching me how to dance. When he was teaching indecently and unnecessarily, then I felt very uncomfortable because of his behaviour and I felt he has outraged my modesty,” Tanushree alleged.
“He (Patekar) told the choreographer and other junior artists to back away so that he could teach me the dance steps through he was not a choreographer and he was not required during the choreography as per my previous rehearsals,” the actress added.
“After the incident, I was under tremendous shock, I suffered psychological trauma, was unable to take up work, suffered huge monetary losses in crores and therefore I decided to take action through film industry by lodging a written complaint with the Cine and TV Artistes Association. The Association decided the matter and passed the order without considering my complaint for ap0logy,” Tanushree stated in her police complaint.
In her complaint, Tanushreee had also named choreographer Ganesh Acharya, producer Samee Siddiqui, director Rakesh Sarang and some MNS workers who allegedly damaged her car and pulled her out of her car, as co-accused.