Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Nov 3: A single judge bench of the state high court presided over by Justice P S Dinesh Kumar, which took up the petition filed by senior actor, Arjun Sarja, seeking to quash the first information report registered against him by the police on the basis of sexual harassment complaint made by actress, Shruthi Hariharan, on Friday November 2, passed an interim order not to arrest Sarja. At the same time, it allowed the police to proceed with their probe.
"This complaint has come after a gap of three years. Why is the government showing so much urgency? The government should behave judiciously. Do not take any hasty steps against the petitioner. Do not arrest him till further orders. At the same time, you can continue with investigation," the bench said.
Additional advocate general, A S Ponnanna, who opposed interim relief, noted that investigation is still continuing. He said that the petitioner has approached the court prematurely, and urged the government not to entertain the petitioner's application.
The court, which could not hear the entire arguments because of time crunch, adjourned hearing to November 14.
Senior advocate, B V Acharya, who appeared on behalf of Sarja, pointed out that Sarja had acted in over 150 films spread over all the south Indian languages. He said that during the 37 years of acting career, Sarja has remained blemish-less. “Shruthi has made baseless allegations to harm his clean image," he claimed.
Acharya said that Shruthi had acted in a film with the petitioner three years back in which they played the roles of husband and wife and that as per the demands of the scenes, romantic scenes were filmed as per the instructions of the director, and all the filming was done in full public view. Noting that Shruthi has claimed that in scenes where the two hugged each other, his hands were moving here and there which she felt to be unnatural. Acharya questioned why she did not take up the issue on the spot.
Arjun Sarja has moved an application seeking restraint order against actress Shruthi Hariharan barring her from making statements in social websites. The civil and sessions court which took up the application, posted it to November 9.