Actor Jeetendra's cousin claims he sexually assaulted her when she was 18; lawyer denies

Jeetendra, now 75, is a well-known name in the Hindi film industry.

Pic Courtesy: IANS

NEW DELHI: Veteran actor Jeetendra's cousin on Wednesday accused the star of sexual assault. The shocking allegation dates back to the time when the victim was 18-year-old and the noted star was 28.

As per IANS, the woman filed a police complaint with Himachal Pradesh's Director General of Police. The star reportedly 'arranged' for the victim to join him from New Delhi to Shimla on the set of his movie without the complainant's 'awareness'. The incident took place in January 1971, when the victim was 18 and Jeetendra was 28.

In her complaint, the woman has alleged that on the night they reached Shimla, Jeetendra returned to the room in an inebriated state, joined the two separate beds and sexually assaulted her.

Now, the noted actor's lawyer has issued a statement denying all the claims made by the woman in question. BollywoodLife.com quoted advocate Rizwan Siddiquee, who represented the actor as stating, “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.

Besides I want to make it specifically clear that the law does not give any person any rights or liberties of making any baseless, ridiculous or fabricated claims against any man publicly and seek to defame him with a hidden personal agenda. Media is therefore adviced to cautiously refrain from giving any importance to such ridiculous, baseless and fabricated claims, and they should not participate in any way whatsoever in defaming or assassinating the character of any man in such cases.

In any event, the timing of this baseless complaint seems to be nothing but a miserable effort made by a jealous competitor to disrupt the business activities of my client and his esteemed Company. Such efforts are therefore in all fairness treated with the contempt it truly deserves.” 

(With IANS inputs)