Alok Nath accused of rape by Tara writer, Sushant Singh says file complaint against this ‘vile creature’
CINTAA executive member Sushant Singh has said that a show cause notice is being sent to Alok Nath after Tara writer Vinta Nanda accused him of rape in a Facebook post.
Tara writer-director Vinta Nanda accused actor Alok Nath – known for his sanskari image onscreen -- of rape in a harrowing Facebook post on Monday. While the veteran producer didn’t name Nath in the heart-wrenching account of the incident that happened almost 20 years ago, she confirmed his name to IANS later.
Taking cognizance of her post, Sushant Singh, executive member of CINTAA (Cine and TV Artiste’s association), has tweeted that a show cause notice will be sent to Nath. He also requested Nanda to file a complaint against the actor. “Dear @vintananda I am so so sorry. As @CintaaOfficial a show-cause Notice will be sent to @aloknath first thing in the mrng, why he shudnt b expld. Unfortunately we’ve to follow the due process. I urge u to file a complaint against this vile creature, we extend u full support,” he wrote.
“He was an alcoholic, shameless and obnoxious but he was also the television star of that decade, so not only was he forgiven for all his bad behaviour, many of the guys would also egg him on to be his worst,” Nanda wrote, adding that he even harassed Tara’s lead actress who was not interested in him.
Sharing the “worst” that happened, Nanda recounted the incidents that followed after she left a party at Alok’s house at 2 a.m. She says her drinks were mixed. “I started to walk home on the empty streets... Midway I was accosted by this man who was driving his own car and he asked me to sit in it and said he would drop me home. I trusted him and sat in his car.
“I have faint memory after that. I can remember more liquor being poured into my mouth and I remember being violated endlessly. When I woke up the next afternoon, I was in pain. I hadn’t just been raped, I was taken to my own house and had been brutalised. I couldn’t get up for my bed. I told some of my friends but everybody advised me to forget about it and move on.”
Later, she got a job to write and direct a series for Plus Channel, and again her paths crossed with Alok.
“The man found his way through the casting route and became one of the lead actors on the show. He created an environment in which I was made to feel threatened, so I asked the producers to release me from directing the series because I didn’t want to be around where he was. I continued to write the show.”
The “most difficult part” and the “main reason” why Nanda took so long to come out with the truth was because while she was working on this new series, she says, “he asked me to come to his house again and I went to allow him to violate me. I needed the job and didn’t want to leave it as I needed the money. It was after this that I quit.”
Nanda has urged people “who have suffered at the hands of predators, to come out and say it aloud”.
“Don’t hold yourselves back. This is a moment for change, so your silence will only hold barriers to its evolution. Speak out. Shout out from the top of the roof.”
(With inputs from IANS)