The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the rape charges against director Madhur Bhandarkar after Preeti Jain, who accused Madhur Bhandarkar of multiple rapes, decided to withdraw the charges against director as she was no longer interested in pursuing the case after 9 long years.
In the year 2009, wannabe actress Preeti Jain accused Madhur Bhandarkar of rape on pretext of casting her in his next movie.
“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,” read a statement from Preeti Jain.
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.
In September last year, a Mumbai metropolitan court found substance in Preeti Jain’s complaint and issued process against Bhandarkar, asking him to the trial. But magistrate's court in November last year had granted anticipatory bail to the director.
In April this year, Supreme Court had passed a stay order on the case.