Alok Nath’s wife moves court, seeks probe on Vinta Nanda’s allegation
Vinta Nanda had alleged that Alok Nath had raped her 19 years ago. Actors Sandhya Mridul and Deepika Amin have also come out with their accounts of being sexually harassed by Nath.
Actor Alok Nath’s wife, Ashu Nath, has filed an application in a Mumbai court, seeking a police investigation into the allegations of rape levelled against the actor by writer-producer Vinta Nanda. “We have requested the court to order police to investigate the allegations. The allegations are meant to tarnish our client’s image. We do not want money. We are seeking only a monetary compensation of one rupee,” Alok Nath’s lawyer Ashok Saraogi was quoted by NDTV as saying.
He said that they will file a defamation case against Nanda and ask for the removal of Facebook post in which Nanda claimed that Nath “brutalized” her 19 years ago, on more than one occasion.
Other than Nanda, actors Deepika Amin and Sandhya Mridul have shared their accounts of being harassed by Nath. Renuka Shahne and Himani Shivpuri have said that Nath’s predatory behaviour on sets was a known fact in the industry.
Earlier, speaking to the media, Nath’s lawyer Ashok Saraogi had said, “It is easy to make the allegations, of an incident which took place 19 years back; this itself shows that the allegations are false on the face of it. A person will never wait for a period of 19 years to make such allegations, especially when we have a democracy, when we have a proper ministry over here, to look after all these things.” He had also threatened Nanda with a defamation suit, “If this defamation continues we will definitely file a defamation suit and bring injunction so that she can’t make baseless allegations in media and defame my client.”
Stating that all this has been done to defame his client’s image, the lawyer further said, “I feel all this has been done only to defame his image and nothing beyond that. This is nothing but systematic conspiracies made by these people to suddenly defame his reputation under the name of the #MeToo campaign. I’m not against the #MeToo campaign, but as far as Alok Nath is concerned all the allegations are false.”
The Cine And TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA) have sent a notice to Nath, demanding to know why he should not be debarred after the harassment allegations.
The #MeToo movement gained momentum in India after Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of harassment. Following the revelation, similar cases have come to the fore with the likes of filmmaker Vikas Bahl, Subhash Ghai, Subhash Kapoor and actor Rajat Kapoor.