Sajjan Jindal, the chairman and managing director of JSW Group, has been booked on charges of alleged rape and criminal intimidation on a complaint filed by a 30-year-old woman, The Indian Express reported on Monday.
Jindal has denied the allegations, calling them “false and baseless”.
The complainant has alleged that Jindal sexually assaulted her on January 24, 2022. She alleged that even before that, he had forcefully kissed her.
She approached the police on February 16.
However, since no action was taken on her complaint, she approached the Bombay High Court on December 5. Police officials from Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex station told the High Court on December 12 that the complainant’s statements would be recorded and action would be taken.
The first information report against Jindal was registered on December 13. A day later, the police told the court that the complainant’s statements had been recorded and Jindal was booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
A bench of Justices Prakash D Naik and Nitin R Borkar directed the police to conduct an “expeditious” investigation.
In a statement, Jindal’s office said on Sunday that the industrialist was “committed to providing full cooperation throughout the investigation”.
“As the investigation is ongoing, we will refrain from commenting further at this stage,” the statement added.
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