Four months after singer Chinmayi Sripada tweeted anonymous #MeToo allegations against singer Karthik, he has responded to it. On Monday Karthik issued a statement via Twitter saying that he hadn’t harassed or hurt anybody, or ignored their consent. He fully supports #MeToo and if there’s truth to anyone’s allegations he was willing to face legal action.
— Karthik Music Exp (@singer_karthik) February 18, 2019
He began the statement by expressing solidarity to families of the CRPF troops who died at the Pulwama attack in Kashmir. He then said he wanted to clear the air around anonymous #MeToo allegations.
“I have not harassed or hurt anybody. If anybody felt hurt because of my actions in the past, please reach out to me directly. I do believe in facing consequences for one’s actions. I fully support #MeToo and if there’s truth in grievances, I shall be more than willing to apologise or face legal action because I don’t want to ever leave a sour taste in anyone’s life.”
He said that in his personal life his father was suffering from a life-threatening illness, and asked people to pray for his recovery. He will not continue as the judge of next season of a singing reality show that he is a part of. Other updates regarding his songs and concerts will be revealed soon.
In October last year, after Chinmayi’s #MeToo allegations against Vairamuthu took momentum, many women shared their own experiences of harassment by people in cinema. Allegations against singer Karthik came up when a women anonymously shared screenshots of her conversation with him, saying how she was harassed.
Chinmayi later said on Twitter, “He has always misused his popularity and sickeningly pursued multiple women (even same day!). This is not restricted to the singing fraternity alone. He does it ‘as a matter of fact’ and has not regret in doing so. Sexting, dirty pictures, videos, groping…what not. I have myself experienced this myself.”
Singer Karthik pic.twitter.com/qFU3cPQgg3
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 12, 2018
A woman also anonymously wrote to journalist Sandhya Menon, who spearheaded the #MeToo movement. She said, ” A few years ago, we were at a public event and he kept talking about my body, he wanted to touch me, feel me and said he masturbated thinking of me. He made me extremely uncomfortable and I felt disgusted. Every time, I have met him I cringed to be near him.”
On singer Kartik pic.twitter.com/0WuWqyd8EX
— Sandhya Menon (@TheRestlessQuil) October 11, 2018
However, Karthik chose to remain silent and did not comment on the issue then.
