Aditya Pancholi blackmailed me, says Bollywood actor who has accused him of rape

A leading Bollywood actor, who lodged a case of rape against actor Aditya Pancholi last month, has claimed in her statement to the police that he also blackmailed her when she was a newcomer in the film industry.

Pancholi (54) has denied all her allegations.

The Versova police here last month registered a first information report (FIR) against Pancholi under the Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 384 (extortion), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

In her statement to the police, she said she met Pancholi in 2004 when she landed in Mumbai "with the dream of becoming a big actor someday".

In the same year, she said she went to a party with him, where after having a drink she started feeling dizzy.

She suspected that he had spiked her drink, she stated.

Pancholi, while dropping her home, stopped the car in the middle of the road and "started getting forcefully physical with me", she alleged.

Pancholi then took her pictures without her knowledge, and the next time they met, he told her that "we now share a relationship like the one between a husband and wife and we will live that way", she said.

"I told him he was my father's age and I want to marry someone who is as old as me," the woman said, alleging that Pancholi then showed her the photographs and blackmailed her.

"At the time, I was quite young, I had no one in Mumbai and he took advantage of that," the 36-year-old actor added.

Pancholi moved a court seeking anticipatory bail after the FIR was registered. The Dindoshi sessions court here has granted him interim relief from arrest till July 19 when his application will be heard next.