Last week, Mumbai police registered an FIR on rape charges against actor-producer Aditya Pancholi based on the allegations levelled by actor Kangana Ranaut. Kangana had accused Pancholi of ‘assault and exploitation’ for an alleged incident that took place almost a decade ago.
Mid-day, a morning daily journal, has accessed Kangana’s two and a half page statement, which the Queen actress submitted to the Versova police on June 26, 2019, narrating her ordeal. It was on the basis of this statement that Versova police had registered a case against Pancholi under sections 376, 328, 384, 341, 342, 323, 506 of the Indian Panel Code, the next day.
Nearly two weeks prior to this, Ranaut’s sister, Rangoli Chandel had also sent an email complaint to the Versova police on behalf of Ranaut. In the email complaint, Rangoli had explained in detail the physical torture and mental harassment Ranaut had to endure at the hands of Pancholi.
After that Pancholi had refuted the allegations claiming that Ranaut was misusing the law to settle a personal score with him. He had, in fact, lodged a complaint against Ranaut and her lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui fearing arrest under rape accusations made by them. Moreover, Pancholi also filed for an anticipatory bail in the Dindoshi sessions court.
On July 2, two days later, Justice H B Gaikwad of Mumbai City Civil and sessions court granted interim bail to Pancholi till July 19 on a personal bond of Rs 30,000.
Ranaut in her statement alleged that Pancholi had drugged her and raped her when she was 17. In her statement, she also mentioned that Pancholi took her photos to blackmail her. She claimed she had lodged a complaint to a senior IPS office in 2004-06 but no action was taken.
The actress, in her statement, divulged her journey to Bollywood and how she met Pancholi, who was then a popular name in the industry. “That year, I met Aditya Pancholi, who was then 38 years old, almost 22 years older than me. I used to stay at a hostel with a group of girls while he was married and had two children; his daughter was my age then,” she wrote.
She alleged that Pancholi had spiked her drink and later raped her in his car. “In 2004, I went to a party with him. Sometimes after having a drink, I started feeling dizzy. I suspected then that he (Pancholi) had spiked my drink. After the party got over, Pancholi said he will drop me home. So I went with him in his Range Rover car. He stopped it in the middle of Yari Road and started getting forcefully physical with me. He also took photographs, which I wasn’t aware of. When we met the next time, he said we now share a relationship like the one between a husband and wife and we will live that way. I told him he was my father’s age and I want to marry someone who is as old as me. Then, he showed me all the photographs he’d taken of me inside his car and started blackmailing me. He threatened to show these pictures to others. At the time, I was quite young, I had no one in Mumbai and he took advantage of that,” she wrote.
Ranaut further added that between the year 2004 to 2006, Pancholi met her several times and forcefully tried to get into physical relationship with her. The actress recalled that once while she was on her way to the police station to file a complaint against the actor, he stopped her auto rickshaw and thrashed her. “I was rescued by a pedestrian who saw me getting thrashed. At the time, I met and informed senior police officer Bipin Bihari about the incident.”
“Between 2004 to 2005, I shifted to Pallavi Apartment with my aunt. Pancholi would come to that flat all the time with his friends and get forcefully physical with me. Every time, he would carry some medicine to spike my drinks. I used to feel dizzy after having them. He locked me in whenever he left my apartment. He would also assault me. He would give me drugs and click my photos; at the time, he used to get MDMA and ecstasy,” she further stated.
The actress has mentioned in her statement that Pancholi had managed to access the keys of her Versova apartment where she shifted in 2006-2007 leaving her aunt’s apartment and regularly started trespassing into her house to assault her.
“Fed up with him, in 2006-2007, I bought a flat in Versova and started living alone. Pancholi came there, made duplicate keys and trespassed into my house and assaulted me. He started breaking everything inside my house and screamed in a completely drunken state. He took all of my keys and left after locking me inside,” she wrote.
She added that later in 2008-2009 she shifted to a house in Bandra and was accompanied by her sister there. Pancholi started visiting her new apartment also and now began to hit her sister also. “My sister, who was unwell then, came to my house and we were living together. When I was away at a shoot, he came to my house and beat up my sister. When I returned home, I saw my sister was shivering and completely scared. I asked her what happened and she told me about how Pancholi had beaten her.”
Kangana in her statement mentioned that Pancholi demanded Rs 1 crore from her as a price to stop troubling the sisters. She said, “He demanded money saying that [I should pay] whatever he has spent on me. He asked for Rs 1 crore. In fact, I paid Rs 50 lakh and he stopped troubling us for a bit.”
Ranaut asserted once the actress shot to fame, Pancholi once again started harassing her and demanded money by blackmailing her with her old photographs.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled on July 19.
