Mumbai: Actor
Karan Oberoi, who was remanded in judicial custody on Thursday over rape allegations filed against him by a tantric and healer, filed for bail on Friday. In his plea, he has termed the FIR against him as “false”, an action “meant to harass”, and called his relationship with his 34-year-old accuser “consensual”.
“The bail application will be heard next week before the holiday court,” said Oberoi’s lawyer
Dinesh Tiwari. “That the case against my client is false is demonstrated from the messages exchanged between the parties.”
In his plea, filed at Dindoshi sessions court, Oberoi (47) said he has worked in TV and film for two decades, is “honest and trustful (sic)” and “has been known for his kindness”, with no criminal past. Among the reasons he deserves bail, according to the plea, is that his father was with the Army and his family has deep roots in society and as such he is not a “flight risk”.
He said in his plea that the allegations against him “inspire no confidence” and the communication exchanged between him and the woman tantric and healer“exposes (her) vengeful attitude”. He said his arrest on May 5 by Oshiwara police and their plea for continued custody even on May 9 (Thursday) was with the “oblique purpose to harass” him.
He contends in the pleas that on Thursday, after being “made aware of the falsity of the allegations”, the magistrate refused to continue his police custody and remanded him in judicial custody.
One of the allegations against Oberoi is that he had expressed an intention to have a serious, committed relationship with the tantric and healer. The actor denies this in his bail plea. “The very fact that the applicant (Oberoi) and the first informant (the woman) had met through a dating app goes on to show that the intention of either party was not to get into a serious relationship,” the plea states, and also that it was she who “since inception” did “try to seduce” him by sending photographs. Attaching copies of the exchanges—submitted earlier to the police—to the plea, Oberoi said in it that they show he never “forced or manipulated” her.
The woman “claimed to practice black magic” and threatened to use it on Oberoi, the actor contended in his bail application, and also that “owing to her torturous behaviour” he blocked her number on “numerous occasions”, though she would “contact through new numbers repeatedly”. In the document, the actor denied that he “demanded anything”, and “it was only to lure” him that the woman would “insist on getting him gifts”.
To protect her interest, Oberoi stated in his plea, she filed a non-cognizable case on October 15, 2018 against him, in which “she never alleged being manipulated and misrepresented by him”.
“One must also consider,” said Oberoi’s lawyer Tiwari, “that last year’s interview of the complainant, published in a newspaper, clearly points out that the allegations are false.”
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