No evidence to prosecute Nana Patekar, say Mumbai police, file B-summary report

The Oshiwara police filed a B-summary report with the local magistrate's court on Thursday in connection with the complaint of sexual harassment against Nana Patekar by actress Tanushree Dutta.

The report says police were unable to find evidence to prosecute the actor in the matter.

A B-summary report in legal parlance suggests there is no prima facie case against the accused and the charges levelled are maliciously false. If the magistrate accepts the report, it will lead to acquittal of the accused. The police may then proceed against the complainant for filing a false case.

A report by the Press Trust of India news agency confirmed that deputy commissioner of police Paramjit Singh Dahiya said investigators were unable to gather any evidence to file charges against Patekar in court and take the case to trial.

Dutta had filed a case against Patekar in October 2018, alleging that he had harassed her on the sets of the film Horn OK Pleassss back in 2008. Dutta was signed on for a dance number in the film. Eventually she dropped out of the project. The movie was also never released.

The police complaint was filed almost a week after Dutta spoke of the incident during a television interview last October.

The interview, aired on Zoom TV, saw the actress also mention the film's producer Sami Siddiqui, director Rakesh Sarang, and choreographer Ganesh Acharya as being witnesses who did nothing to stop Patekar's overt moves.

Dutta's statement was seconded by journalist Janice Sequiera who was a cub reporter attending the film's shoot at the time. Sequiera stated that the revelation by Dutta was identical to her interaction with the actress after the incident.

An assistant director on the film, Shyni Shetty, had also backed Dutta's statement. 

The incident was the first of many complaints that soon snowballed into the #MeToo movement in India. While Patekar initially said he would make a statement before the press, the actor thereafter went incommunicado. 

Meanwhile, the Times Now television news channel reported that Tanushree Dutta's legal team will continue with the process of trying to seek justice. 

The website NewsMinute.com quoted Dutta's lawyer, Nitin Satpute, as saying, "The investigation is incomplete. We have witnesses but their statements haven't been recorded. I have been trying to contact the police but they are not responding." 

Dutta's statement to the ANI news agency saw her levelling accusations against the police as well.