Bengaluru: South Indian film actor Arjun Sarja, who was accused of sexual harassment by actress Sruthi Hariharan, approached the High Court on Tuesday seeking to quash the police complaint filed against him.
The Cubbon Park police had earlier filed an FIR based on a complaint filed by Sruthi.
“The case and complaint is a classic case of abuse of law and launching malicious and vile attacks on an innocent man. It is a serious attack on the life and liberty of the petitioner,” Sarja's petition stated.
With more than 150 films to his credit and a career spanning over 37 years, the multi-lingual actor said the #MeToo movement has now strayed from its main objective.
He alleged that many women were making false allegations under the hashtag and these complaints have not been subjected to the fair judicial or prosecution process.
He alleged that in many cases actresses who were 'off the market’, disgruntled and publicity crazy were hurling baseless allegations on social media in order to destroy the reputations of various personalities.
Regarding Sruthi's complaint, the petitioner prayed for an interim order to stay all further proceedings in the matter or direct to save him from any kind of coercive action by the police, such as arrest, detention, restraint and so on.
Sarja stated that Sruthi has woken up after three years to sully the reputation of dignified person.
“While an assembly of few persons, identified with fanatic orientations, were openly seen moving and acting for her in the wild pursuit, the society at large vouched to support Sarja,” the actor’s petition stated.
The actor stated his reputation has suffered a huge blow due to fabricated lies and also caused damage to his entire family.
He also pointed out that the actress filed the police complaint only after he filed a defamation suit of '5 crore against her. The actress had made additional allegations in her police complaint, which were missing in her Facebook post.
The petitioner also stated that the complaint and the FIR contents clearly shows that there were a conspiracy to misuse cyber space for character assassination.
