Mumbai: Intending to malign the reputation of a member of the National Sports Club of India (Worli), a female member of the club, Shilpa Ahuja, had falsely accused him of making lewd comments and gestures during a function at the club on May 1. When Ahuja was repeatedly asked why she had not gone to the police and lodged a complaint, she was evasive and played the victim card against Atul Maru.
On May 2, Ahuja wrote a letter to the club president, complaining about Maru. In response, Maru filed a complaint on May 6 with the president of club, denying all the allegations made by Ahuja. He said they were “not only false and frivolous, but made with ulterior motives, to defame him and his family.”
Further, he wrote he wanted to put on record, though it that had been more than a year that he had spoken to Ahuja, much to his surprise, for the past few months she had been trying to defame him and his family on social media and in other ways for reasons best known to her.In the face of this harassment, Maru had ignored all her actions and remained calm, he said.
According to Maru, “I was with my wife at the bar on May 1, to attend the musical night at the club. While I was enjoying the programme along with my friends, I was surprised to see Ahuja deliberately standing close to me, in order to hear all our conversations.
I neither talked to her nor threatened her in any manner, as falsely claimed.”According to another member of the NSCI club, in 2012, another member of the club was targeted in the same way and his reputation too was maligned by the false allegations of Shilpa Ahuja.
“False allegations were made by Ahuja that I had molested a girl in the club, as a result of which my membership was suspended and I went through a tough time. I was even suspended from my post as secretary of the club for 4-5 days.
But since I was innocent, after the inquiry, Ahuja and her husband were suspended,” said a member of the club on request of anonymity. This proves, Maru is not the only one to have undergone this ordeal. Meanwhile, Shilpa Ahuja claims to be targeted because she writes about every in and out of the club on social sites.
