Actor Ranjitha today appeared before a court hearing her complaint against a former disciple of self-styled godman Nityananda over a sleaze video purportedly showing her with the controversial ascetic.
Ms. Ranjitha, in her complaint, had charged Lenin Karuppan, who had claimed to have shot the video, with criminal intimidation, attempted rape and criminal conspiracy and had said that the footage was morphed.
She appeared before Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Roopa in nearby Ramanagara and made a sworn declaration in connection with her complaint filed on December 30.
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Since the statement was not completed, the Judge posted the case to February 19.
Ms. Ranjitha had also accused Lenin of attempted extortion and acts intended to insult the modesty of women.
She had alleged that Lenin made sexual advances towards her. When she threatened to complain against him to Nityananda, he displayed on his laptop “a few poorly shot videos of his molestation of two women Brahmacharis” and warned that she would see her own image in such videos if she dared to complain, Ms. Ranjitha had claimed.
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The actor, who has starred only in Tamil films so far, alleged that she was unable to stay in Nityananda’s ashram ‘Dhyanapeetham’ because of the sexual harassment and so she had to return to Chennai.
On February 2 last, while she was in Kerala for a film shoot, she was told by an ashram resident that an accomplice of Lenin had shown him certain photographs in which Nityananda was portrayed in a compromising position with her and sought Rs 20 crore for not releasing them to the media, she said.
She had also alleged that the purported video was “expertly-crafted to give no indication about its morphing.”
Nityananda, who went into hiding in Himachal Pradesh, after TV channels aired the sleaze video in March last year was arrested later on various criminal charges, including rape.