Actor Jeetendra accused of sexual harassment; says allegation is false

A woman on Wednesday accused veteran Bollywood actor Jeetendra of sexually harassing her. The woman came forward to file a police complaint 47 years after the alleged incident. The victim made the startling allegation in a complaint filed with Himachal Pradesh’s Director General of Police. A copy of the complaint is with DNA.

As per the complaint, the incident took place in January 1971, when the woman was 18 and Jeetendra around 28 years old. He “arranged” for her to join him in Shimla on the sets of a movie. The woman alleged that on the night they reached Shimla, Jeetendra returned to the room in an inebriated state and sexually assaulted her.

Refuting the allegations, advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, representing Jeetendra, stated that, “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 law enforcement agencies after a span of almost 50 years. The Statute has provided a justice delivery system through the Courts, and Limitation Act 1963 was specifically enacted to ensure all genuine complaints are made within a maximum limit of three years, so that a proper investigation is carried out and timely justice is delivered. Besides, I want to make it specifically clear that the law does not give any person any rights of making any  fabricated claims publicly and seek to defame him.”