Day after mid-day report of alleged victims claiming the police never reached out, cops issues new appeal for other victims to step forward and make case stronger against TVF CEO Anurabh Kumar
Arunabh Kumar
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After over two weeks of intense pressure since the first in a series of over 50 allegations about sexual harassment against TVF founder Arunabh Kumar emerged, and 11 days since Mumbai Police opened an informal investigation in the case, an FIR was finally registered by one of the victims around 8.45 pm yesterday, when she approached the MIDC police.
Joint commissioner of police (law and order) Deven Bharti confirmed the development to mid-day and said, "On the complaint of a victim, a case under sections 354 (a) [making sexually coloured remarks] and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC has been registered at the MIDC police station against Arunabh Kumar."
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Till yesterday, the police had been under pressure for not having registered an FIR against Arunabh despite the charges of over 50 women that they had at some point, been harassed by him. Now, according to sources and details of the FIR, the victim has alleged that Arunabh molested her in 2016 when she interviewed for a gig at the TVF office, and he reportedly touched her and called her sexy several times. She approached the MIDC police at around 7 pm and the FIR was officially lodged at 8.45 pm.
Meanwhile, in a bid to make their case stronger, the police has appealed to other victims to also step forward and so desperate is it now, that a top city cop has offered home delivery of female officers to help the victims lodge a formal complaint and record their statements.
Mounting pressure to act
Following a criminal complaint against them by lawyer Rizwan Siddique for not taking a third-party FIR as he originally sought, and the public outcry over failure to reach out to victims except the one tweet on March 14 that appealed to any victim to step forward to lodge an
FIR against Arunabh, the police initiated an informal inquiry.
On Wednesday, a highly-placed officer from Mumbai police said, "If in case any victim feels uncomfortable to come to the police station, they are free to call us anywhere. We are ready to come to their doorstep."
"In fact, so that they can record their statement freely, we will only send our female staff."
mid-day has been following the developments in the case ever since Arunabh became the centre of a controversy after an anonymous blogger (under the pseudonym Indian Fowler) made allegations on March 12 that she had faced repeated sexual harassment at the workplace from him over a span of two years.
He said, she said
The blogpost opened a Pandora's box, and more allegations began pouring in, some anonymously. But of the over 50 complaints doing the rounds since March 15, only one has materialised into a formal case so far.
Meanwhile, on March 29, mid-day had reported that despite police claims of reaching out to victims, one of the survivors contradicted the claim and said, "I don't think the cops are serious about the matter. My post is still active on Facebook and has been quoted by several publications, but I haven't got a single call from the police. I am well aware that they want us to record a statement with them. But I find them extremely hostile and despite reassurances, I don't feel safe about it. However, they claim to be doing a thorough investigation. I should have been reached out to if they were doing their job well."
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