On 27 June, an FIR was filed against actor Aditya Pancholi for allegedly raping a Bollywood actor. In order to seek anticipatory bail for his client, Aditya Pancholi’s lawyer advocate Prashant Patil on Wednesday argued that the complainant had lied about her age in the complaint and that a passport copy of the complainant has been submitted to the court as proof.
The lawyer further added that Aditya Pancholi had initiated criminal proceedings before the complainant, proof of which has also been submitted in court. The lawyer also argued that there is “no truth” in the allegations against Aditya Pancholi.
Here’s the argument Aditya Pancholi’s lawyer made in court:
“The complainant has filed this complaint as a counter blast to a criminal defamation complaint filed by my client against the complainant before a Court. The complaint makes allegations which are ex facie fake even to the knowledge of complainant. The allegations are 15 years old. The complainant intentionally lies about her age in the complaint. We submitted the passport copy of the complainant which reflects her true age. This conduct of the complainant is not natural and stinks of mala fide investigation.
My client has video recordings of lawyer of complainant since January 2019, and my client has submitted the same before Police and Court. If he was guilty why would he initiate criminal proceedings first? He was requesting the police to take cognisance of the complaint filed by him. If the police would have acted upon his complaint then truth would have been revealed.
There is no truth to the allegations made against my client.
Hon’ble Court was kind enough to grant interim bail protection to my client till further Orders.”
Aditya Pancholi filed a counter application stating that the complainant’s lawyer had been threatening to file a rape case against him following a defamation suit that Pancholi had filed against her.
Aditya Pancholi has been booked under sections 376 (rape), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 384 (extortion), 341(wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and IPC 506 (criminal intimidation). He has denied all allegations against him.
The complainant’s sister had filed an application in April in the Versova police station, alleging that Aditya Pancholi had assaulted and exploited her sister a decade ago. Aditya Pancholi then filed a counter application stating that the complainant’s lawyer had been threatening to file a rape case against him following a defamation suit that Pancholi had filed against her.
On 25 June, a summons was issued to the complainant and her sister in the defamation case.
Recently, Aditya Pancholi told PTI that he was being falsely implicated. As of now, he has been granted interim relief till 19 July by a Mumbai court post which, his application will be heard again in court.
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