A day after actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar’s lawyer, Nilesh Pawaskar, of fraudulently taking crucial documents from her and affecting police investigation, the latter has denied the allegations and said he will be taking legal action against Ms. Dutta and her lawyer Nitin Satpute.
The documents, according to Ms. Dutta, pertain to Bollywood’s first case in the #MeToo movement of October 2018, where she accused Mr. Patekar of sexually harassing her on the sets of the movie Horn Ok Pleassss . She had also accused director Rakesh Sarang, producer Samee Siddiqui and choreographer Ganesh Acharya of being involved in the act.
Ms. Dutta had filed a complaint regarding the same with the Oshiwara police, who after investigation, filed a B-summary report last year, seeking closure of the case as they did not find any evidence against Mr. Patekar to file a charge sheet.
The actor on Tuesday announced that she has filed a protest petition against the B-summary which is scheduled to be heard on January 17. “In December, Mr. Pawaskar came to my residence and told me that Mr. Patekar would get me jailed and he wanted to help me with the case. He also asked for original documents, including the contract of the item song in the movie, which according to him were necessary to send a notice to the producer. It was only after he took away the documents that I came to know that he was Mr. Patekar’s lawyer,” Ms. Dutta said in a press conference on Tuesday.
The actor also said the contract was an important document to be presented in court as it mentioned that the item song was to be a solo artist song and the dance steps and costume would be according to her comfort.
Ms. Dutta’s lawyer too has alleged that he faced harassment from Mr. Pawaskar due to which he was removed from the lawyers’ WhatsApp group. “He also asked the other group members to file complaints against me. I will take action against him for cheating my client and defaming me,” Mr. Satpute said.
However, when The Hindu reached out to Mr. Pawaskar, he said he had appeared for Mr. Patekar in one a case in 2005. He also said he never approached Ms. Dutta and all the allegations made against him by her were false and baseless. Mr. Pawaskar said he intended to initiate legal action against the actor and Mr. Satpute for falsely accusing him.
“Ms. Dutta came to me in 2008 to file a case after a cheque given to her by a producer bounced. Accordingly, I issued a notice to the producer. But when she started talking about Mr. Patekar, I told her that I am only concerned about the case at hand and refused to talk about Mr. Patekar, as he was my client and friend,” Mr. Pawaskar said. He also said he never met the actor again and that she did not even pursue the case of the cheque any further.
“I never asked her for any documents or contracts. Even in order to file the notice for dishonoured cheque, I do not need any documents unless they were to be presented at the court hearing. A lawyer will only ask for the story to issue a notice, not documents,” he said.
