Jeetendra opens up on sexual assault claims by his cousin, terms it 'ridiculous'

Veteran actor Jeetendra has rubbished the sexual assault allegations imposed by her cousin and termed the accusations as 'baseless and ridiculous'.

It was reported that the actor's cousin had alleged that Jeetendra had sexually assaulted her in Shimla in January 1971.

Apparently, while the victim was 18 and the actor was 28 at that time. She alleged that Jeetendra had "arranged" for the victim to join him from New Delhi to Shimla on the sets of a film he was shooting for. He later sexually assaulted her in an inebriated state.

While her FIR was not registered, she went on the e-mail the complaint to the Director General of Police, Himachal Pradesh.

Thrashing all the allegations, Jeetendra's advocate Rizwan Siddiquee said the allegation was "baseless and ridiculous"

"Foremost, my client specifically and categorically denies any such incident. Besides even otherwise such baseless, ridiculous and fabricated claims cannot be entertained by any Court of law or the law enforcement agencies after a span of almost 50 years," it said
Siddiquee said the law did not give any person "any rights or liberties of making any baseless... claims against any man publicly and seek to defame him with a hidden personal agenda"

"The Statute has provided a justice delivery system through the Courts, and the Limitation Act 1963 was specifically enacted to ensure that all genuine complaints are made within a maximum time limit of three years, so that a proper investigation is carried out and timely justice is delivered," it added.

It also questioned the timing of the complaint

"In any event the timing of this baseless complaint seems to be nothing but a miserable effort made by a jealous competitor to disrupt the business activities of my client and his esteemed company. Such efforts are therefore in all fairness treated with the contempt it truly deserves," it said.

Reportedly, the complainant chose to bring the incident into light as a part of the '#MeToo' campaign wherein several women in Hollywood have raised the issue of facing sexual assault from men in the industry.