Actor Jeetendra denies allegations of sexual assault levelled by his cousin

Veteran Bollywood actor Jeetendra on Wednesday denied the allegations of sexual assault made against him by his cousin. The complainant had claimed that the actor had sexually assaulted her nearly five decades ago in Shimla.

The woman said that she is the daughter of Jeetendra’s maternal uncle. She filed the complaint with Himachal Pradesh’s director general of police. She said that at the time of the incident, she was 18 and Jeetendra was 28.

The alleged incident took place in January 1971, when Jeetendra “arranged” for his cousin, without her knowledge, to join him in Shimla at the sets of a film, according to the complainant. On the night after they reached Shimla, Jeetendra allegedly entered their room in an inebriated state and sexually assaulted her, she has claimed in her complaint.

“Foremost, my client specifically and categorically denies any such incident,” Rizwan Siddiquee, the lawyer representing the actor, said. “The law does not give any person any rights or liberties of making any baseless, ridiculous or fabricated claims against any man publicly and seek to defame him with a hidden personal agenda.”

He said the timing of the complaint seems to be a “miserable effort made by a jealous competitor to disrupt the business activities” of the actor. “Such efforts are therefore in all fairness treated with the contempt it truly deserves,” Siddiquee said.

The lawyer added that the allegations cannot be entertained by any court or law enforcement agencies “after a span of almost 50 years”.

The woman said that she filed the police complaint only after her parents died, as she felt they would have been “heartbroken” if they had got to know of the incident, India Today reported.

Several women have come out in recent months with allegations of sexual harassment in the film and entertainment industry in the United States.