Mumbai, October 30
Bollywood actor and model Sherlyn Chopra, who filed a police complaint against MeToo accused Sajid Khan, recorded her statement with the lady police officer and has made a special request to Salman Khan.
Sajid was mired in the #MeToo controversy in 2018 after nine women from the industry – who worked with him on his various projects – had accused the filmmaker of sexually harassing them.
Along with Sherlyn, actresses, including Saloni Chopra, Aahana Kumra and Mandana Karimi, leveled the allegations against him.
Sherlyn, who has now recorded her statement against the filmmaker at the Juhu police station in Mumbai, spoke to ANI, about the entire experience of recording the statement and appealed to Salman Khan for his support.
“I have been told that the police officer to whom my case has been assigned was not available. I requested them to give me a lady officer to take a statement. I was told that there was no lady police officer present at Juhu PS. I was shocked. So, now I just finished giving my statement to a lady police officer, Megha, who is a PSI and I was given an assurance that they would summon Meetoo accused Sajid Khan from Bigg Boss house for interrogation.
The actor said, “I would like to make it clear that this is not just my battle, no it’s a battle of every woman, who has been wronged by MeeToo accused Sajid Khan. It’s a battle of every person who believes that sexual molestation is not acceptable. Sexual molestation is not a birthright that is to be exploited or misused especially by people like Sajid Khan, who happens to be the favourites of Khan gang in Bollywood. They have very high connections, so it’s difficult for us. Today, in the industry, if you compare our status with theirs, who are we ‘outsiders’, who are they, belong to Khan camp. To fight them it takes an immense amount of bravery and patience.”
She added, “my appeal is to join our fight against sexual exploitation, against double standards of Bollywood. My special request is to Salman Khan who’s very conveniently ignoring the plight of women who’ve been wronged by his friend. People call you ‘Bhaijaan’, why can’t you take a stand for us? Why can’t you be a big brother to us? Why can’t you remove our molester, habitual offender, and habitual sexual predator from your house. Why this indifference to us?”
Sherlyn continues, “Our next course of action is to do a silent protest outside Salman Khan’s house to urge him to show some sympathy towards us as we treat him as our ‘Bhaijaan.”
Meanwhile, Sajid, who following the allegations had stepped down from his directorial duties for ‘Houseful 4’, is currently a participant in the Salman Khan-hosted reality TV show ‘Bigg Boss 16’.
Several people including singer Sona Mohapatra and actor Ali Fazal, among others have objected to Sajid’s involvement in the show and have demanded that he be removed from it.
