The Mumbai Police has summoned Bollywood Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in connection to the alleged sexual assault case filed by actress Payal Ghosh. The director is expected to appear at the Versova Police station tomorrow at 11 am.
On Tuesday, the actor met Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari demanding action against Anurag. She was also accompanied by Rajya Sabha MP Ramdas Athawale who backed her demand seeking the arrest of the director. A day earlier, they met Vishwas Nangare Patil, the Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) seeking security cover for the actor. While addressing the media, the actor demanded Y-plus security as she is facing a threat to her life. Y-plus security was recently extended to actor Kangana Ranaut after her comments comparing Mumbai with PoK created controversy with leaders in Maharashtra. She also threatened to go on a hunger strike if no action was taken against the director and questioned the ‘delay’ in arresting him.
On September 19, Payal had accused the director of sexual assault. The actor took to her Twitter account and alleged that Anurag Kashyap had forced himself on her and demanded action against him. However, Anurag dismissed her allegations as ‘baseless’ and said that these are attempts to ‘silence’ him.
The actor in her original tweet had also tagged the Prime Minister's Office seeking immediate action against Anurag. On September 23, she filed a rape case against the director at the Versova police station along with her lawyer Nitin Satpute. “Finally FIR has been lodged against Accused for the offence Rape, Wrongful Restrain, Wrongful Confinement and outraging modesty of woman U/S 376(1), 354, 341, 342 of IPC,” said Nitin Satpute.
In a video,the actor said that Anurag tried to force himself on her when she met him for work while alleging that actors like Richa Chadda and Huma Qureshi would provide sexual favours for him. "He told me that it is a very normal thing in the industry and being in a physical relationship is not a big deal," she said in the video.
Richa Chadha sent a legal notice to the actor, while Huma Qureshi wrote a note in which she said that she felt ‘angry for being dragged into this’ and that Anurag had not misbehaved with her or anyone else to the best of her knowledge.
Kashyap has received support from members of the film industry, including his ex-wives Kalki Koechlin and Aarti Bajaj, both of whom extended their support on social media.
Kangana Ranaut extended her support to the actor and said that Anurag is “very much capable’ of sexual assault. She has also locked horns with the Maharashtra government accusing them of selectively taking action against people accused of wrong-doing.