Bollywood director Subhash Ghai has been accused of rape, with an anonymous woman alleging that he spiked her drink and then sexually assaulted her.
The director has denied the allegations.
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The alleged victim shared horrific details of her ordeal through writer Mahima Kukreja, who had accused comedian Utsav Chakraborty of sexual harassment last week. Kukreja, one of the first women to come out with charges of sexual harassment against men, took to Twitter Thursday to share the story of the woman who accused Ghai of rape.
The woman clarified that she didn’t want her name to come out in media. According to Kukreja, the woman is “very credible media/lit personality, who does not want to be named”.
The woman said she worked with Ghai on a film years ago and he started taking an extra interest in her and would often call her for script sessions at his apartment, which he would call his “thinking pad”.
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She claims he once forcefully kissed her but tried to pacify her the next day by calling the incident a “lover’s tiff”. She said she told the first assistant director and two other women about the incident but decided to let it go because she had no job or financial security at that time.
After a late music session, she alleges, he decided to have a drink and offered one to her, which “was spiked”. She says all that she remembered was that she was getting into his car thinking he would drop her home. The woman remembers being taken to a hotel room. “I swear on my child that I asked him where are we going and please take me home,” she writes, before adding details of how she was in and out of consciousness and was violated by the famous film director.
Subhash Ghai denied the allegations on Thursday saying it had become “fashionable” to malign anyone’s image.
“It’s very sad that it’s becoming a fashion to malign anyone known, bringing some stories from the past without any truth or half truth if (at) all. I deny strictly and firmly all false allegation like these,” Ghai told news agency IANS.
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“I have always respected every woman in my life and at work place whatsoever… If she claims this way, she should go to court of law and prove it. Justice will be done. Or I will go for defamation certainly,” added the director.
Ghai is among the several celebrities who have been called out as part of the raging #MeToo movement.
Another name that cropped up on Thursday is that of actor-director Sajid Khan, who has been named by multiple women, including two actresses — Sonali Chopra and Rachel White — and one journalist.
(With agency inputs)