HC refuses bail to Mumbai-based producer booked for raping actress

The Bombay high court last week rejected the anticipatory bail plea of film producer and director Sudeep Saha, who has been booked by Santacruz police for allegedly

The Bombay high court last week rejected the anticipatory bail plea of film producer and director Sudeep Saha, who has been booked by Santacruz police for allegedly raping and blackmailing a Hindi and Bhojpuri actress and also filming her intimate moments with another producer, using a spy camera.

Bombay High Court.

Santacruz police had booked Saha on July 22, based on a complaint lodged by the actress. She said she was in touch with Saha over phone and WhatsApp, as he had offered to cast her in his movies.

She alleged that in July 2016, he called her at a hotel on Juhu Tara Road under the pretext of giving her a role and sexually assaulted her. Thereafter, she alleged, he continued a physical relationship with her on the false promise of marriage. In December 2017, he got a song picturised on her and released it on an electronic platform.

She said thereafter, there were frequent quarrels between them and during the period, Saha showed her their intimate pictures. She claimed that after she realised that he was already married, she started maintaining distance from him, but he threatened to make the photographs public and coerced her to continue the relationship till May 2019.

In between, she and her mother had purchased two separate flats from Saha, and she had started residing at the flat. She added that between December 2019 and January 2020, she signed a contract for five films with a producer from Kolkata, but Saha was unhappy with that and had threatened that producer.

In April 2020, the complainant was shocked to receive photographs from the Kolkata producer’s wife, capturing the complainant’s intimate moments with the producer at her Mumbai flat. Thereafter, she took a search of the flat and found a spy camera installed in the electric boards of her bedroom and hall.

In this backdrop, Saha had sought anticipatory bail contending that the FIR itself made it amply clear that it was a case of a consensual relationship. He sought the protection of pre-arrest bail, claiming he had cooperated with the investigation and already deposited his mobile phone and laptop with the investigating agency. Thus, he claimed, his custodial interrogation was not necessary.

Justice Sarang Kotwal, however, refused to accept the producer/director’s claim. The judge said initially, it could have been a consensual relationship, but subsequent consent obtained under coercion, was no consent in the law and therefore, the offence of rape was made out against Saha.

Justice Kotwal was more annoyed with Saha’s conduct in recording private, intimate moments of the complainant without her knowledge.

“The matter of spy camera is a cause for concern,” said justice Kotwal. “Even before installing a spy camera in Deep Tower, her private moments were captured on video. There is no explanation as to why the spy camera was installed in Deep Tower without knowledge of the informant. The recording was sent to the wife of the other (Kolkata-based) producer. That producer was also terrorised. The conduct of the applicant (Saha) is dangerous to the first informant,” said the court while rejecting the pre-arrest bail plea.