Getting rape threats for seeking Sajid Khan’s ouster from Bigg Boss, says Delhi women’s panel chief
Ten women have accused the filmmaker of sexually harassing them, Swati Maliwal had written in a letter to the Union broadcasting minister.
Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal on Wednesday said that she has been receiving rape threats since she wrote to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur earlier this week seeking the ouster of filmmaker Sajid Khan from reality show Bigg Boss.
Khan is a contestant in the season 16 of Bigg Boss that began airing on October 1. In 2018, actors Saloni Chopra and Rachel White and journalist Karishma Upadhyay had accused Khan of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement.
On Wednesday, Maliwal posted screenshots of two rape threats sent to her on Instagram. “They clearly want to stop our work,” she wrote. “I am filing a complaint with the Delhi Police. Register [an] FIR and investigate. Arrest those who are behind them!”
In a letter to Thakur on Monday, Maliwal had stated that giving space to Khan on national television despite the allegations against him was “completely wrong”. His participation in the show “underlines the precedence that men who enjoy clout in the entertainment industry easily get away with abusive acts without facing any consequences”, she added.
The Delhi women’s panel chief noted that 10 women have accused Khan of sexual harassment.
“They are upcoming celebrities in Bollywood and risked their careers to come forward and complain against abuse by an authority figure,” she wrote. “While there is a public outcry against Khan’s inclusion in the show, the makers of the show are refusing to remove him, as they apparently gain TRP [Television Rating Point] ratings and viewership due to the ensuing controversy.”
Neither actor Salman Khan, who is the host of the show, nor the makers have addressed the allegations against Sajid Khan.
After the allegations against him surfaced in 2018, he had stepped down as director of the movie Housefull 4. The Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association had suspended him for a year.