The Andheri Metropolitan Magistrates Court on Tuesday directed Madhur Bhandarkar, a national award winning director, to appear before them on November 14th in connection with the rape case filed by struggling actress Preeti Jain.
The director, failed to appear before Magistrate B B Pantawane on Tuesday, and sought exemption through his lawyer Shrikant Shivde claiming he had few prior commitments that could not be changed.
Sushan Kunjuraman, Preeti Jain’s lawyer, raised objection over the director’s absence and said that the accused had to come and obey the Court.
“I strongly object as the accused had a month on him. He should have come, especially in a rape case, it is not tenable,” said Kunjuraman.
In year 2004, a struggling actress Preeti Jain had filed a case against Madhur Bhandarkar saying that the director raped her on the pretext of giving her a lead role in his film.
She went on to say that they slept together 16 times in between 1999-2004 as the director promised her a role in his films and marriage.
"We had sex 16 times and Madhur made promises of giving me a lead role in his films. However, he didn't offer me a lead role in any of his movies. At times when I refused, he raped me,” she has said in an earlier statement.
In 2004, Preeti was arrested after she hired contract killer for Rs.70,000 to murder Bhandarkar.
In 2007, the case was disposed when the Versova police filed a report saying that there was no evidence to support Jain’s allegations.
However, Preeti Jain persisted with her allegations and requested the court to carry out further investigations.
In 2009, the police had again dismissed the case, state that the allegations by Preeti Jain were false. But the court rejected the report and said it would conduct an inquiry in the case.