Court grants anticipatory bail to Aditya Pancholi in rape case

Mumbai: A sessions court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Bollywood actor Aditya Pancholi in a rape case filed by a woman. The woman had alleged that the 54-year-old actor sexually assaulted her between 2004 and 2009.

Sessions judge H.B. Gaikwad on Tuesday confirmed the interim pre-arrest bail already granted to Pancholi on July 2.

In a conditional bail, the court directed Pancholi to furnish a sum of '30,000. The court also directed Pancholi not to enter the locality, where the victim is residing, as well as her place of work. The court directed the actor to not try contacting the victim through any means until the chargesheet is filled.  

In her complaint, the woman alleged that the actor allegedly sexually assaulted her between 2004 and 2009. As per the complaint, Pancholi beat her up and confined her to his house whenever she tried to approach police during this period.

The woman also alleged that Pancholi demanded '1 crore for not showing her private photographs to her family and friends and claimed that she paid him '50 lakh.

Pancholi’s lawyer Prashant Patil refuted all the allegations and argued that there was no explanation for the delay caused in lodging the report. He also dismissed as ‘vague’ the allegations made against his client.

Mr Patil also claimed that the complainant was not a minor in the year 2004, as her date of birth as shown in her passport was 23.03.1986.

If her date of birth mentioned in the passport is taken into consideration, her age in 2004 was more than 18 years, he said.

The woman has wrongly stated her date of birth as March 23, 1987, in the complaint and this prima facie shows she is not coming clean on the issue, the lawyer added.