Inappropriate touching, claims victim, but facts differ.
By Dileep Thekkethil
Popular yesteryear playback singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, who sang many Bollywood songs in the 90s, was today accused by a woman of sexually harassing her during a durga puja celebration.
According to reports, a 35-year old woman has registered a case against the singer for inappropriately touching her and abusing her while both were attending a concert performed by Kailash Kher as part of the Navaratri celebrations.
The police have charged a sexual harassment case against Abhijeet, and also charged him for intentionally insulting the woman with the intent to provoke breach of peace.
The incident leading to the incident happened on Wednesday at around 10 pm in Lokhandwala area where the singer was one of the organizers of the Durga Puja celebration, which had Kailash Kher as the main singer.
The singer told PTI, “I don’t know who she is. Such an incident is not possible in front of a crowd of 50,000 people. My entire family was there. Saying ‘hello’ or ‘hi’ to anyone does not amount to molestation. She didn’t go to the police station. The police took her there. She was abusing and it became necessary to evict her from the auditorium. Gate crashing and nuisance is the main factor. Let’s not talk about these things on Vijayadashami. Let us enjoy today.”
A senior police officer, Subhash Khanvilkar, was quoted saying, “While the programme was going on, a woman stood up in between (the rows of the audience) that blocked the view of stage for the people sitting behind. People started shouting at her and when she did not listen, Abhijeet himself made her sit down. While trying to move away the victim from where she stood up, Abhijeet allegedly touched and caught her inappropriately.”
Other than Kailash Kher, popular singers such as Shaan, Sonu Nigam and Babul Supriyo also performed as part of the Durga Puja celebration.
Abhijeet has sang songs in the 90s for actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar. He has also sang melodies for movies like Dhadkan, Chalte Chalte and Om Shanti Om.