Trigger Warning: The following article contains details about sexual assault and violence. The details may be traumatic for survivors. Reader discretion is advised.
The #MeToo movement gained ground in B-Town after Tanushree Dutta levelled sexual harassment charges against Nana Patekar and took a fiercely strong and uncompromising stance. Many skeletons tumbled out of the closet, whipping up a storm. Bollywood biggies like Subhash Ghai, Vikas Bahl, Sajid Khan and others came under the scanner with serious professional consequences.
According to a report in Mid Day, model and actor, Kate Sharma who had filed a complaint against the ‘showman’ for sexual misconduct and harassment in October, has withdrawn her case. In a written to the D.N. Nagar Police Station, she revealed that she was fed up of the way the case was being handled.
She went on to explain that people are making a mockery of the #MeToo movement. Sharma said that one of the reasons behind the withdrawal was that she wanted to ‘take care of her ailing mother’ and closed ones who were disturbed after she filed the case. “I had never told my family about what happened; they saw me on TV and were completely disturbed,” she told Mid Day.
“Nothing has happened, nobody has been arrested. If cops are only busy registering FIRs, then what is the use of this entire campaign? We [Ghai and her] were very good friends, but he destroyed everything,” Sharma elaborated.
Sharma had accused Ghai of asking her for a massage and groping and forcibly kissing her. Ghai earlier tweeted, ‘I am a great supporter of the #MeToo movement and women empowerment, but hope that those taking undue advantage of the movement do not end up diluting it for their own short time fame. I feel grief if someone is trying to harm my reputation. Anyway, my lawyers will take care of the matter.’
In an anonymous account shared on Twitter around the same in October, a woman detailed an incident of allegedly being drugged and raped by filmmaker Subhash Ghai. Writer Mahima Kukreja, who was one of the first women to accuse comedian Utsav Chakraborty of sexual harassment and has since used her Twitter to share other women’s #MeToo stories, shared the account.
In the messages addressed to Mahima, the woman described working with Subhash Ghai on a film years ago. After showing unwanted interest in the woman, Subhash allegedly offered her a spiked drink while dropping her home in his car. The woman remembers being taken to a hotel room and assaulted before losing consciousness.
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