Mumbai The Bombay high court has issued a notice to the state while hearing the application of actor Aditya Pancholi who sought quashing of the FIR filed against him in 2019. Pancholi was booked on charges of rape and sexual abuse of a well-known actress and her sister during her initial years in the industry.
The counsel for the actor sought quashing on the ground that no chargesheet had been filed in the case, though three years had passed which indicated that there was no evidence against him, and he was forced to live a life under the gloom of prosecution.
The division bench of justice Nitin Jamdar and justice N R Borkar while hearing the application of Pancholi was informed by advocate Abhinav Chandrachud that despite passage of three years, the Mumbai police had not filed a single chargesheet in the case which indicated that there was no progress in the investigation.
As per the complaint, the actress’ sister had claimed that her sister was exploited and abused by actor Aditya Pancholi at least a decade ago. The complaint was the culmination of the allegations made by the actress in interviews wherein she had accused Pancholi of physically and sexually abusing her when she was new to the film industry. She had alleged that Pancholi had kept her confined to the house and she had escaped by jumping off the first-floor window.
“The case is pending since 2019, and the petitioner (Pancholi) is living in the stigma of the prosecution,” stated the petition. The court was told that in such a scenario, in the absence of evidence, the prosecution should file a B-Summary report. It also sought directions to the prosecution to inform him about the status of the trial.
After hearing the submissions, the bench asked the prosecution to inform the court on the progress of the investigation and trial arising out of the case, and posted the hearing of the application to September 19.
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