Actor Nana Patekar on Thursday called Tanushree Dutta’s allegations of sexual harassment against him “motivated and malicious”. In a reply to the Cine and TV Artists’ Association, which had issued a notice to him, Patekar claimed that contrary to her assertion, Dutta had not made any complaint against him in 2008, when the alleged incident took place.

On September 25, Dutta accused Patekar of sexually harassing her in 2008 on the sets of the film Horn ‘Ok’ Pleassss. Earlier this month, CINTAA apologised to Dutta for not addressing her complaint of sexual harassment and intimidation appropriately when she first raised it in 2008 and urged the authorities concerned to conduct an “impartial and speedy inquiry” into the matter.

“My client denies in toto the baseless and unsubstantiated allegations, insinuation levelled by Dutta,” Patekar’s lawyer Aniket Nikam said in the reply to CINTAA, PTI reported. “Neither he outraged, much less misbehaved, with Dutta during the shooting of the said song, nor did he interfere with anyone during the shooting.”

The reply said that Dutta’s allegations had damaged Patekar’s reputation “beyond repair”, and asked CINTAA not to entertain “such groundless accusations, particularly when such allegations are levelled after almost a decade”. The lawyer added that Patekar was in the process of taking appropriate legal action against Dutta for “defaming” him.

Dutta has filed a police complaint against Patekar, which also names choreographer Ganesh Acharya, producer Sameer Siddiqui and director Rakesh Sarang. Patekar has sent a legal notice to Dutta, asking her to apologise for making false claims. She has also received a notice from director Vivek Agnihotri, who allegedly asked her to take her clothes off and dance to give co-star Irrfan Khan his cues while they were shooting for Chocolate in 2005.