Ganesh Acharya, who recently choreographed the hit Pushpa song Oo Antava, has been charged with sexual harassment, stalking and voyeurism based on a 2020 complaint by an assistant choreographer.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Mumbai police recently filed a charge sheet against the choreographer for the same. Acharya and an assistant have been charged under sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354C (voyeurism), 354D (stalking), 509 (insulting the modesty of any woman), 323 (causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code.
The charge sheet was filed after the police conducted an investigation into the complaint of the woman who had worked with Acharya. In 2020, the dancer had filed the complaint stating that Acharya had been harassing her after she turned down his sexual advances. She also accused him of making lewd comments, showing her a porn movie, and molesting her.
However, in a statement to Quint, the choreographer denied these allegations and said, “I’m not aware of the charge sheet or its contents. I have not been informed about this. I have already filed a defamation complaint against her, which is subjudice. I am innocent and all the allegations made against me are false, fabricated, and malicious.”
“I have full faith in our judicial process and the truth about the falsity of the allegations levelled against me will come out. As regards to the charge sheet, I will take necessary legal recourse as advised, at the relevant time,” he added.
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After the complaint from the assistant choreographer in January 2020, another woman came forward and filed an FIR against Acharya for sexual harassment that February. In a letter to the National Commission of Women (NCW), she had stated that Acharya had “coerced” her into having sex with him in 1990, but she managed to escape.
Apart from these allegations, in 2018, actor Tanushree Dutta had accused the choreographer of being complicit in her harassment by actor Nana Patekar while filming a song sequence for the 2009 movie Horn Ok Pleassss.