BENGALURU: A sandalwood actor has filed a complaint against noted Kannada actor Dharmendra, popularly known as Dharma, accusing him of extorting money from her and threatening to leak obscene videos of her. The victim, Sangeetha Vishwanath, in her complaint to Begur police alleged that Dharma has been extorting money from her since 2017, and has so far take Rs 14 lakh as a price to keep her videos ‘safe’.
The victim told the police that Dharma knew she was interested in doing movies and on March 1, 2017, Dharma sent his car with driver Naveen and called her for a shoot in RR Nagar. Upon reaching the venue, Sangeetha found that there was no shooting going on and thus enquired with Dharma who told her that the shooting was cancelled due to some technical reasons. According to the complaint, Dharma gave Sangeetha another date for shooting and offered her food before leaving for home. She obliged and had food along with a cold drink.
“After having the cold drink, I lost my consciousness. I was called to the shooting room wherein Dharma was sitting alone and thereafter I cannot remember what exactly happened. I returned home only to receive the extortion call from Dharma,” the victim wrote in the complaint. Dharma demanded money from Sangeetha saying he had some videos of her, which he had allegedly taken in the shooting room while she was unconscious. He allegedly demanded money and threatened to show the video to her parents and upload it online if she did not pay up.
Between March 2017 and May 2018, Sangeetha alleges that she paid Dharma a sum of Rs 14 lakh. On the night of May 27, 2018, she and her husband confronted Dharma and demanded that he return the money. “On that night (May 27), Dharma even came to my house, banged on the door, threatened to kill me, my husband and children if we do not pay him more,” the complainant said. Fed up with Dharma’s repeated threat calls, Sangeetha filed a complaint with Begur police station.
The police have registered a case of extortion and criminal intimidation under Sections 384 and 506, against Dharma and his driver Naveen. Dharma is popular for his negative roles. He began his career in Kannada cinema with Sudeep’s movie – Huchcha. He also acted in Edegarike, Mane Magalu, Aa Dinagalu, Mantralaya Mahatme, Mandya, Veera Madakari, Slum Bala, and Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna.
