Rape charges against Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar dropped
The Supreme Court of India on Monday dismissed the rape charges against renowned Bollywood firm director Madhur Bhandarkar.
The 44-year-old filmmaker-cum-director, who has made several critically acclaimed films like Fashion, Page 3, Chandni Bar, Traffic Signal, and Corporate, was accused of raping actress Preeti Jain.
Jain had lodged a complaint against Madhur Bhandarkar in July 2004 saying the actor had raped her 16 times between 1999 and 2004 under the pretext of marrying her and giving her leading roles in his movies.
The struggling actress had alleged that Bhandarkar promised to marry her and at times when she refused for the physical relation, he raped her.
Preeti Jain was arrested in September 2005 after she hired a contract killer for Rs.70,000 to murder Bhandarkar but was later released on bail.
In 2006, the police asked the court to dismiss case against Madhur Bhandarkar as they didn’t found any evidence against him.
In 2009, Preeti moved to a local court in a Mumbai metropolitan court. In September 2011, the court dismissed the police report and ruled that Mr Bhandarkar would be attempted for sexually harassing the actress.
In November 2011, the Bombay high Court (BHC) granted bail to Madhur on a bond of 30,000 rupees and two sureties.
Earlier this year BHC rejected Bhandarkar’s application to stay the process against him in the Mumbai metropolitan court.
Meanwhile, Jain has welcomed the apex court’s verdict saying she and Bhandarkar have now varied all the differences between them.
“I welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court because Madhur Bhandarkar and I have varied our differences for ever. And we both want to move on in life. So, I wish him all the best and I think it is a progressive step it was going on for more than eight years,” she said.
