Mumbai: An anticipatory bail has been provided to Bollywood actor Aditya Pancholi in a rape case filed by a woman.
Judge H. of Dindoshi Sessions Court. B. Gaikwad granted permission to file a bail petition before the arrest filed by Pancholi, who has also denied rape and other charges by the woman, who is also an actor.
In suburban Versova, the police had registered a case against Pancholi under sections 376 (rape), 323 (assault), 328 (causing injury through poison) and 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code on the complaint of the woman.
The woman has alleged that the 54-year-old actor, who acted in several Hindi films in the 1990s, sexually assaulted her between 2004 and 2009.
She has also claimed that Pancholi assaulted her and confined her to her house whenever she tried to contact the police during this time.
In the complaint, she said that Pancholi demanded Rs 1 crore from her for not showing her personal photos to her family and friends, and claimed that she had paid him Rs 50 lakh. Pancholi’s counsel Prashant Patil submitted before the court that there was no explanation for the delay in filing the complaint and dismissed the allegations levelled against his client as “unclear”.
Patil had also argued that the woman lied about the date of her birth in the complaint.
The woman was not a minor in 2004, as claimed by her, as the date of birth recorded in her passport is 23 March 1986, the lawyer told the court.
If his date of birth is mentioned in the passport, he was over 18 years old in 2004, Pancholi’s lawyer said.
The lawyer said that the woman incorrectly stated her date of birth as 23 March 1987 and this prima facie shows that she is not giving clarification on the issue.
Patil said that his date of birth was different in his complaint and passport, and such discrepancies show “his intention to lie”.
She filed the complaint only when Pancholi received a favourable order in a defamation suit from a magistrate’s court that she had filed against him, the lawyer argued.
Pancholi has denied all the allegations and claimed that he has been implicated in a false case.
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