Officers from the BKC's cyber police station record actress' statement; say surrendering of gadgets would have helped them in tracing person alleged to be impersonating actor Hrithik Roshan
Kangana Ranaut
Officers from Bandra Kurla Complex's cyber police station, who arrived at the Khar West house of actor Kangana Ranaut to take her statement in an investigation into a case of someone impersonating actor Hrithik Roshan, were disappointed when Ranaut refused to hand them her laptop and iPad.
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Kangana Ranaut
This, the officers were hoping, would help them help them crack the case. In February, Roshan's legal team had sent a notice to Ranaut demanding an 'unconditional apology' for a 'defaming' remark in an interview where she allegedly referred to him as her 'silly ex'.
That triggered off a war between the two with a counter-notice being filed by Ranaut and further allegations and counter-allegations being leaked every other day. In the interim, Roshan also filed an FIR at the cyber police station against an unidentified person for impersonating him and chatting with Ranaut as him. Ranaut, who was named in this FIR, said she would give her statement to the cops on April 30. The actor's sister Rangoli also gave her statement.
According to sources, Ranaut said that all allegations made by Roshan are false and that his team (she hasn't specified who) have hacked into her account and tampered with the mails. The sources weren't clear about whether her email ID had been hacked into to delete or send the emails. The alleged impersonation came to light at filmmaker Karan Johar's party, when the two actors bumped into each other.
Chasing Kangana
On Saturday, there was heavy media presence outside the Khar West building where Ranaut lives. Earlier, it was believed that she would go to the cyber police station to give her statement. Around 1 pm, Ranaut left, only for the media to realise that it was for the gym. She returned in an hour.
A cyber cell officer visited Kangana Ranaut's Khar residence (below)
The cops arrived at 4.45 pm. Ranaut's advocate was present at the meeting with senior inspector Kalpana Gadekar. At the meeting, which lasted for over three hours, sources said Ranaut denied allegations of stalking Roshan and talking to the alleged imposter.
Aside from her laptop and iPad, the cops asked for Ranaut's iPhone, from which she allegedly sent the emails to Hrithik. The actor said the phone had fallen in water after which she threw it away.
A police source said, "We asked Ranaut and her legal team for the digital equipment to better trace the sender of the emails, but she did not give us anything." Kangana's advocate Rizwan Siddiqui said in a statement, "The police were happy to get more information from my clients and learn about things that were not mentioned by the complainant in his FIR."
A police source said accessing Kangana's email account and then checking the details of the emails sent by the imposter is what investigators are looking for. "From the header of the imposter's emails, investigators can find out the IP address of the imposter. And through that, the imposter can be identified within a few days," another police officer said. But the case could hit a dead end if the imposter had used proxy servers, said another source.
However, an officer said Ranaut did not have her laptop when the police team visited her home to record her statement. Siddiqui did not respond to queries on allowing the police access to Kangana's email account. Roshan's publicity representative said the actor was not going to issue a statement.
— With inputs from Shubha Shetty-Saha
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