Jeetendra rubbishes sexual assault allegations against him

Veteran Bollywood actor Jeetendra has quashed the sexual harassment allegations made by his cousin, reports ANI. His lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee, has issued a statement in which these allegations have been dubbed as "baseless and ridiculous". Siddiquee also said that the law did not give any person liberties to defame a public figure for hidden personal agendas.

"Foremost, my client specifically and categorically denies any such incident. Besides even otherwise such baseless, ridiculous and fabricated claims cannot be entertained by any court of law or the law enforcement agencies after a span of almost 50 years," the statement read.

The statement further added, "The statute has provided a justice delivery system through the courts, and the Limitation Act 1963 was specifically enacted to ensure that all genuine complaints are made within a maximum time limit of three years so that a proper investigation is carried out and timely justice is delivered".

The allegations came amidst the ongoing #MeToo campaign in which Hollywood actors have come forward to speak up about sexual assault they faced from industry men. Jeetendra’s cousin emailed a complaint to the Director General of Police of Himachal Pradesh and stated that the alleged incident took place in Shimla in January 1971. The actor was 28 at that time while the complainant was 18 years old. She said that the actor "arranged" for her to join him on a shooting schedule in Shimla where he assaulted her in an intoxicated state. However, the FIR was not registered on basis of that email as the complainant's signature was necessary for registering an FIR.

The 75-year-old yesteryear’s superstar, whose real name is Ravi Kapoor, has featured in several super hit Hindi films like Farz, Humjoli, Do Bhai, Himmat, and Tohfa. He is married to wife Shobha Kapoor and has two kids - Ekta Kapoor, aged 43, and Tusshar Kapoor aged 42.