Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap left Versova police station after being questioned for eight hours on Thursday, having been issued summons on the preceding day to appear in connection with the sexual misconduct and rape case filed by television actor Payal Ghosh. Police sources said that during questioning, Kashyap refuted all the allegations and said that he routinely met many struggling actors looking for work and that he and Ghosh had only met for work purposes, said police sources.
Kashyap reached the police station around 10.45am, accompanied by his lawyer Priyanka Khimani, who had earlier issued a statement that her client was deeply pained by these allegations. During the questioning, Kashyap had said that when Ghosh had accused him of sexual misconduct in an interview last week, he could not even recollect who she was, said police sources.
"Kashyap said that he meets many struggling actors at parties, offices and other places, to cast in upcoming projects and he does not remember all of them. Secondly, he said that he had never made any inappropriate move during their meeting and refuted all the allegations, claiming that he could not help if Ghosh had felt otherwise," said a police officer close to the investigation.
After a gruelling interrogation session of over eight hours, in which police tried to piece together the sequence of events from Kashyap's perspective, the filmmaker left the police station with his legal counsel.
On September 22, actress Payal Ghosh had lodged a complaint against Kashyap at Versova police station, after which a First Information Report (FIR) was filed. Kashyap was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for rape, molestation, wrongful restraint and confinement.
According to the complaint, the incident had occurred in 2013, at Kashyap's then residence at Yari Road, Andheri west. Meanwhile, the filmmaker has time and again called the allegations that he raped the actor at his house as "baseless" and said he intended to take legal action in the matter.
