Photo: Collected
Former Miss India and actress Tanushree Dutta has finally reacted after veteran actor Nana Patekar’s sudden demise. In a brief comment she said, ‘The one who is gone, is gone.’ It was through this actress that the #MeToo movement began in India; she had raised allegations of sexual harassment and threats on the set of the 2009 film ‘Horn Ok Please’.
Nana Patekar died at the age of 75 after suffering a heart attack at his own home in Goa. When the news of his death came, Tanushree Dutta was on her way to Lucknow to attend an event. After getting the news, she initially said it had happened on a strange day, because the media would now want to know her comment on the whole incident. Later, facing the media at that event in Lucknow, Tanushree said in her reaction, ‘I have no reaction. This day today is for my organisers, for making their event a success. What more can I say now? The one who is gone, is indeed gone.’
After this brief comment, Tanushree Dutta spoke of the various hardships she had gone through over the past few years. She alleged that she had been subjected to continuous harassment for the past five years since the #MeToo movement. How much pressure was put on her as a victim while the case was ongoing can only be understood from her perspective. Tanushree said she was offered various kinds of bribes to withdraw the case; but she never gave in, nor did she withdraw the case.
In 2019, police cleared Nana Patekar of all the allegations. However, Tanushree Dutta claims that the court did not prove the actor innocent; rather, he had the case closed by using his influence. Explaining how the judicial process had stalled despite there being sufficient evidence, she said it had taken a full five years just to persuade their main witness. This was because threats used to be made from unidentified numbers to that witness, or her hairdresser, and people were also sent to intimidate.
Calling Nana Patekar ‘arrogant’, Tanushree said, ‘What is true is true. My main witness’s affidavit had been submitted to the court. But on the very day that affidavit was supposed to be presented, the day we were going to win the case, the case was closed. He was an extremely arrogant man, and God himself has brought his life to an end. Because he simply was not stopping. That devil was not stopping; he just kept on hurting me.’
This explosive remark by Tanushree Dutta came to light just before Nana Patekar’s last rites were completed with state honours at his farmhouse in Pune.
Source: NDTV
