Television actress Payal Ghosh, who has accused filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of sexual misconduct, visited the national capital to meet the National Commission of Women (NCW) and Home Minister's office to expedite the probe into her complaint. While the police have recorded Kashyap's statement, they are yet to make the arrest and ascertain his claims of being in Sri Lanka in August, 2013, as he has not submitted any documents supporting it.
On Wednesday, Ghosh met Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and sought speedy justice, amidst the probe into the allegations of sexual misconduct pitted by her against filmmaker Kashyap. The actress tweeted, "Met up with Shri G Krishan Reddy who is the MOS of @AmitShah ji at @HMOIndia and also the minister of state of home ministry and had a very fruitful and forwarded conversation on the issue. It’s an issue faced by many and now is the time to act."
A day earlier, Ghosh had also met the NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma in Delhi and thanked her for supporting her allegations of sexual harassment against Kashyap. Meanwhile, a probe is underway and police are trying to acquire the Call Data Records (CDR) of both the parties to ascertain any call history exchanged between them to look for evidence.
Police, however, are yet to get the exact dates in August, 2013 when Kashyap was in Sri Lanka, as stated by him, which stunts the probe. On Friday, Kashyap's lawyer Priyanka Khimani had released a statement, saying Ghosh was hijacking the #MeToo movement for her ulterior motives. Excerpts from the statement read, "Mr Kashyap has provided documentary proof of the fact that throughout August, 2013, he was away in Sri Lanka in connection with the shooting of one of his films."
A fortnight after an FIR was lodged at Versova police station accusing Kashyap of raping the actress at his residence in 2013, the investigating team has recorded the statements of two witnesses --the driver who drove Ghosh's car to the filmmaker's house and her manager. In their statements, neither of the witnesses mentioned the date of the alleged incident, which does not help police to piece together the timeline of the incident.
