An affair turns nasty.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW DELHI: Bollywood actress Preity Zinta has filed a police complaint against her former beau Ness Wadia, who she alleges molested her and threatened her life in an incident late last month.
Zinta (39) filed an FIR with local police in Mumbai, saying that Wadia (44) assaulted her during an IPL match at the Wankhede Stadium, between the Chennai Super Kings and the Kings XI Punjab teams, the latter of which is co-owned by Zinta. She alleges that Wadia cornered her and began showering her with profanities in front of several onlookers, even putting his hands on her.
According to Zinta, this isn’t the first time that Wadia, a well-known businessman, has come after her following their acrimonious split several years ago, but it is the most high-profile. The two were a hot item in Bollywood for many years until they split around 2009, but were thought to have remained on reasonably good terms – that, apparently, is definitely not the case.
Mumbai police have reportedly said that Wadia is in violation of “assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty,” “intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace,” “punishment for criminal intimidation,” and “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman,” according to The Times of India.
Although the incident allegedly happened on May 30, Zinta waited a full two weeks before filing the complaint, which she did on Thursday. This was because she was on a trip out of the city, and could not officially file the grievance until she had come back.
Wadia, meanwhile, has denied the allegations, calling them baseless and untrue. Wadia, in addition to being a co-owner of the Kings XI Punjab team along with Zinta, is also a co-owner of the Indian Premier League itself. He is also Managing Director of the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, which is part of the Wadia Group conglomerate.
Zinta has spent the last several years working in several different avenues outside of Bollywood, after her career in that department stalled. She is best remembered for her work in films like Kal Ho Naa Ho, Koi… Mil Gaya, and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.