Actor Arjun Sarja on Thursday filed a police complaint against fellow actor Sruthi Hariharan, who recently alleged that he had sexually harassed her during a rehearsal. While his family members approached the city police with a formal complaint, his lawyers filed an application with the city civil and sessions Court seeking injunction against Hariharan.
Shiva, a relative of Sarja, met City Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar on Thursday morning with a complaint claiming that Hariharan, along with others, “had conspired” and entered a “criminal conspiracy” to malign the image of the actor.
The 400-page complaint reportedly had details of her accusations and of others, on social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp between October 20 and 25. They told the police that fake accounts had been created to “upload derogatory posts” with the “intention to extort money”.
The complaint was forwarded to the Cybercrime Police Station at the Commissioner’s office, where an FIR has been registered against Hariharan and others under sections of criminal conspiracy, extortion, cheating by impersonation, and the Information Technology Act, 2000.
An attempt by the Central Reconciliation Committee of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce to “resolve” the dispute between the two ended in stalemate on Thursday.
The CRC, headed by veteran actor Ambarish and with many representatives of Kannada cinema, held discussions with both Hariharan and Sarja.
However, while Hariharan decided to wait till Friday morning to reply legally to the two cases filed against her by Sarja, following a request by the stalwarts of Kannada cinema, Sarja said in a unequivocal ter that there was no question of compromising with Hariharan. He said he would continue to “fight for justice” in the court of law.
Speaking after the talks, Hariharan also said that there was no question of apologising, as she was the one who had been victimised. “I am glad that he wants to fight the case. But I will wait for the decision of KFCC until tomorrow morning before taking the next step.”
Stating that CRC had given time to both the contesting parties to sort out things among theelves, Ambarish said: “We cannot pressurise either them as they both seem hurt. We have told them to take a final call after consulting their family members, friends and well-wishers.” He said that the issue was in court and they could not interfere beyond the point.
Regretting the “political, religious and caste” overtones being given to the issue, Ambarish said that there was no religion and no caste for the fil. “Giving political colour to the issue is not right, as people belonging to all religions, all castes and all political parties, watch fil,” he said.
He added that KFCC was in the process of constituting Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee, as per the provisions of Sexual Harassment of Women and Work Place Act, 2013.
While Hariharan was accompanied by noted filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh, actor Dhruva Sarja accompanied his uncle Arjun Sarja.
According to film personalities, who were privy to the meeting, both Hariharan and Arjun stood their ground throughout. While Arjun demanded an unconditional public apology by Hariharan, latter refused to apologise since she was not at fault. She demanded unconditional withdrawal of all the cases filed against her, said sources.