Tanushree Dutta sexual harassment row: FIR filed against Nana Patekar, others under sections 354, 509 of IPC
Following actress Tanushree Dutta’s statement in a sexual harassment case, an FIR has been registered against actor Nana Patekar, choreographer Ganesh Acharya, director Rakesh Sarang and producer Sami Siddiqui.
While the section 354 implies “assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty,” section 509 pertains to “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.”
Miss Dutta, almost two weeks ago, in an interview with Zoom TV, had accused the four men named in the FIR of sexual harassment on the sets of Horn OK Pleassss in 2008.
In many interviews that she gave later, the actress said that she was ordered to do lewd, intimate and vulgar dance steps with Nana Patekar, something she was not made aware of beforehand. As claimed by her, she had to pay a heavy price for not complying – her car was attacked by a bunch of goons.
Following Miss Dutta’s allegations, several people from within the Hindi film industry came out in support of her. These include Farhan Akhtar, Taapsee Pannu, Anurag Basu, Simi Garewal, Kangana Ranaut and Sonam Kapoor.
The Aashiq Banaya Aapne actress’ accusations opened floodgates for India’s own #MeToo movement. In this firestorm, that began almost a week ago, a host of well-known celebrities including Alok Nath, Vikas Bahl, Rajat Kapoor, Kailash Kher, Raghu Dixit, Rohit Roy and Chetan Bhagat have been named.