Himachal Pradesh HC stays proceedings against actor Jeetendra in sexual assault case

New Delhi: Veteran actor Jeetendra was booked by the Shimla police days after his cousin alleged that he sexually assaulted her years back when she was all of 18.However, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Saturday stayed further proceedings against him in the sexual assault case.

Hearing the actor's petition, Justice Ajay Mohan Goel passed this order after an initial hearing.

Jeetendra sought quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered by the police on February 15.

The actor's cousin had filed a complaint against him in Shimla accusing the superstar of sexually assaulting her 47 years ago. In her complaint, the woman had alleged that on the night they reached Shimla, Jeetendra returned to the room in an inebriated state, joined the two separate beds and sexually assaulted her.

Jeetendra has dubbed the charges as "baseless", and a "miserable effort by a jealous competitor to disrupt his business activities".

Jeetendra, whose real name is Ravi Kapoor, is the son of the victim's father's sister.

Rubbishing the charges, Jeetendra's counsel Rizwan Siddiquee in a statement earlier said, "Foremost my client (Jeetendra) specifically and categorically denies any such incident."

He claimed that such "baseless, ridiculous and fabricated claims" cannot be entertained by any court of law or the law enforcement agencies after a span of almost 50 years.

"Such efforts are, therefore, in all fairness treated with the contempt it truly deserves," Siddique said.

Jeetendra, now 75, is a well-known name in the Hindi film industry. He is also a film producer and has daughter Ekta and son Tusshar with wife Shobhaa.

(With inputs from IANS)