The Mumbai Police has filed a charge sheet against choreographer Ganesh Acharya alleging him of sexual harassment, stalking and voyeurism. The case has been filed by a fellow dancer in 2020 as stated by a police officer on Thursday.
As per media reports, Oshiwara police officer Sandeep Shinde, who investigated the complaint said that the charge sheet was recently filed in the court of a metropolitan magistrate at Andheri. Acharya’s assistant is also a co-accused in the case and they have been charged under under sections 354-a (sexual harassment), 354-c (voyeurism ), 354-d (stalking), 509 (insulting the modesty of any woman), 323 (causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code.
The assistant choreographer in her complaint alleged that Acharya had been harassing her after she turned down his sexual advances. She has alleged that Acharya passed lewd comments, showed her a porn movie and molested her. She has also claimed that he said that in order to success she would have to have sex with him in May 2019. She had refused and as a result her membership to Indian Film and Television Choreographers Association was terminated.
She further accused Acharya of abusing her and his assistants assaulting her when she opposed his actions at a meeting in 2020 and said, “The female assistants beat me up, abused me and defamed me after which I went to the police who refused to lodge a complaint and merely registered a non-cognisable case. Then I contacted a lawyer to take the matter further.”
The 35-year-old assistant choreographer told a leading daily that she has been informed about the charge sheet being filed but Acharya refused to comment on the case. Earlier, Acharya was accused of sexual harassment by some of his co-workers in the past but had categorically denied them claiming them as “false and baseless”. The daily reported that Acharya’s lawyer Ravi Suryavanshi has denied having any knowledge about the police charge sheet and said, “I don’t have the charge sheet so I cannot say anything, but all the sections in the FIR were bailable.”
(Source: Hindustan Times)
