Sajid Khan Denies Sexual Harassment Allegations At IFTDA Meet; Rachel, Simran, Saloni, Karishma To Be Called Next Week

The IFTDA heard Sajid Khan out yesterday and the director vehemently denied the allegations levelled against him. Now, the complainants will be called to the office next week

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Sajid Khan Denies Sexual Harassment Allegations At IFTDA Meet; Rachel, Simran, Saloni, Karishma To Be Called Next Week

Sajid Khan was summoned by the IFTDA (Indian Films & Television Directors’ Association) on November 1 to hear his side of the story after several women including Rachel White, Simran Kaur Suri, Saloni Chopra and Karishma Upadhyay (journalist) alleged that they were sexually harassed at the hands of the director. Now, SpotboyE.com brings you the details of the meeting.

We have learnt that the meeting went on for one-and-a-half hours in the presence of Bhavna Talwar, Ashoke Pandit and 2 senior lawyers. The meeting was largely presided over by Mrunalini Deshmukh. To begin with, Sajid heard the complaints against him in detail and then, went ahead and vehemently denied allegations levelled and said that he is innocent.

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Rachel White, Simran Kaur Suri, Saloni Chopra and Karishma Upadhyay (journalist)


Confirming the news, Ashoke Pandit tells SpotboyE.com, “Yes, he said No to all the allegations. Now, the next step is inviting the complainants.” We hear, the complainants will be called next week.

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Ashoke Pandit And Mrunalini Deshmukh

You may recall, the complainants had voiced their grouse at not being called for the trial along with Sajid Khan. At that time, Pandit had told us, “Please have trust in us. And have some patience. We have taken up this matter very seriously and shall treat it with dignity.We have heard the Sajid Khan complainants at length when we met a few of them. The rest of them have written to us also in detail. So, we shall be questioning Sajid on all counts. Plus, we will have the minutes of whatever he says. We are doing a very transparent job. There's nothing to worry. The next step would be to call all the complainants together and have a meeting with them.”

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Sajid Khan

He had added, “After that, we at IFTDA shall internally have an exhaustive meeting to decide if we need to call Sajid and the complainants together. If we feel there's a need to talk to them together, we will not hold ourselves back. If we feel there's no need to call them together, we will not. The complainants have complained to us and we respect that, now they need to observe some patience, and above all, have trust in us. If we weren't serious about their complaints, we wouldn't have taken up the issue.”

“We have involved a big NGO from Kolkata in this matter. Bhavna Talwar is one of the few ladies who will preside over the questioning. The committee that will question Sajid, in fact, will have several ladies. When we eventually give our decision at some point, it can stand in the court of law.  We know that the matter is serious and we are not here to make a fool of ourselves,” he had concluded.  

 

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