Forty-seven years after the alleged incident, an FIR has been lodged by the Shimla Police against veteran actor-producer Jeetendra a.k.a. Ravi Kapoor. He has been accused of sexual assault by his cousin.
The news has been confirmed by Shimla’s Superintendent of Police Umapati Jamwal, who said, “An FIR under section 354 IPC has been registered at Chotta Shimla police station. After her email, we got in touch with the complainant, who later had also sent us a written complaint to support her version.”
In the FIR, the petitioner states that she saw the respondent, her father’s sister’s son known in Bollywood by the stage name Jeetendra, at family gatherings once or twice a year ever since she was a young child. “We rarely interacted with each other directly and never without older relatives present,” it reads.
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The incident allegedly occurred in January 1971, when the petitioner was 18 years old and Jeetendra was approximately 28. He arranged with her now-deceased father to have her join him on the set where his movie was being filmed. “Mr Kapoor never spoke to me about his film shootings, nor did he invite me personally to attend. The Respondent made these arrangements without my awareness,” she claims.
She states that Jeetendra arrived at her family home in a car with a driver and two male film industry colleagues. She joined her cousin in the car and the group drove from New Delhi to the movie set in Shimla together. She writes that during the long drive, nobody spoke to her. When they finally arrived in Shimla, it was night-time and the group went directly to the hotel.
He allegedly brought her to his hotel room, which contained two separate beds. He mentioned that he was going out and would return later. Tired from the journey, she says she went to sleep in the far bed, which was pushed against the wall on two sides.
Later that night while she was sleeping, she claims the respondent retuned to the room. He joined the two beds together while she was asleep and sexually assaulted her. She alleges that he also smelled strongly of alcohol, and though she repeatedly tried to push him away, it was to no avail.
Later he separated the beds and they slept silently in the room that night. The following morning, he did not speak to her and asked the driver to buy her some clothes and return her to New Delhi.
The claim has been denied by advocate Rizwan Siddiquee who is representing Jeetendra.
“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 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.”
Police Superintendent Jamwal has said that the investigations in the complaint will be carried out as per the old provisions of the section 354 IPC, in accordance with the laws prevalent in 1971 when the alleged crime took place.
