The #MeToo movement has gripped India with many women coming forward to recount how they were sexually harassed. Celebrities from many industries have been named including those from Bollywood, Media and politics. One such person accused was Siddharth Bhatia, the founding editor of The Wire.
Bhatia was named by at least two different women, in two separate incidents and accused of having used his position of power of sexually exploiting women. One woman has accused Bhatia of ‘propositioning young interns in DNA (where Bhatia was previously associated with) offering tips on writing’. The second Twitter user has accused Bhatia of licking his ‘lower lip seeing bra straps of young women’ in office.
Now, Bhatia has filed a police complaint to investigate the Twitter handles who made these accusations. Bhatia has maintained that the allegations were false. He has also said that they had requested the ladies to come forward with more details but nobody has.
I have filed a police complaint to investigate the handles which made false claims against me over 10 days ago. We requested them to come forward with more details. So far no one has. pic.twitter.com/QeP2IpBjAj
— Sidharth Bhatia (@bombaywallah) October 18, 2018
Bhatia explains that the lady who accused him of inappropriate behaviour while he was at DNA was false. He says no lady with that name worked at DNA while he was there. He also says that the second lady, he said, had claimed to work for The Wire Hindi. Bhatia asserted that the second allegations seem false as well because The Wire Hindi has no female staff.
In the note, Bhatia says that he had urged the women to come forward with more details but none of them has. He has now filed a police complaint with the Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police to investigate these Twitter handles. He says he will pursue this matter by all possible means until it is proven that these allegations were false and defamatory.
