After sexual misconduct allegations by singers Shweta Pandit and Sona Mohapatra against Bollywood singer and composer Anu Malik cropped up, a former staff member of Indian Idol 5 said that she is aware of more women who faced similar harassment at the hands of Malik.

According to a Mid-Day report, Malik has been asked to step down as a judge on the ongoing singing show Indian Idol 10 amidst the allegations. But as for now, no official announcement has been made by the makers of Indian Idol.

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Danica D’Souza, who worked with Freemantle Media India during Indian Idol Season 5, said the incident occurred when she was the assistant director and it was her first big project and it happened during the auditions that took place sometime between April – May 2010.

ALSO, READ| #MeToo: Sameer Anjaan supports Anu Malik, says Shweta Pandit wanted a more private room

The incident happened in Kolkata while one of her colleagues, along with a cameraman, was travelling with Malik. The colleague was traumatised and narrated how the composer tried to touch her thigh and felt her up. She said that the colleague told her the cameraman wasn’t aware of what was happening on the back seat of the car.

After all the misconduct allegations against Anu Malik, she is disappointed that the higher-ups chose to ignore the complaints. She said though the team sympathised with the colleague but eventually brushed it off.

She further added that he has an image of a ‘tharki’ (lascivious) and that when her colleague went on to narrate the incident to the production house, everyone turned a blind eye to her ordeal. After all this, the production house members asked everyone to be careful around him and not meet him alone since he had a habit of becoming over-friendly at several instances.

After Danica shared one of the incidents, Sona wrote on Twitter that if anyone turned a blind eye they were complicit with Anu’s crime.

I called #AnuMalik out first & stand by my statement of him being a ‘serial predator’ along with #KailashKher. Dear #India please do not let these men get away like they hope to.They are counting on short public memory & R confident that very soon it will be ‘business as usual’. https://t.co/oo6IVvGBN6

— SONA (@sonamohapatra) October 20, 2018

A few days back, Shweta had said that she was just 15 when Anu asked her to kiss him and Sona Mohapatra had called him a ‘serial predator.’