Bidhannagar: A woman taking money out of a purse, then dumping it in a waste bin — onlookers at the Kolkata Book Fair first threw curious glances, then were suspicious.
When police patrolling the fair quizzed the woman, it turned out to be actor Rupa Dutta, who plays the role of goddess Vaishno Devi in popular Hindi serial Jai Maa Vaishno Devi. According to the police, she had no satisfactory answer as to why she was carrying Rs 65,000, as well as several wallets.
Dutta was arrested by the Bidhannagar Police Saturday on charges of pickpocketing at the Kolkata International Book Fair.
“Why would an actor pick a bag out of a dustbin and take out money from it? We also found a diary which had some calculations in it,” Pratik Basu, inspector-in-charge, Bidhannagar North police station, told ThePrint.
“We haven’t found any previous crime record of Ms Dutta,” he added.
When produced at the Bidhannagar Court, Dutta claimed she had found a purse in the dustbin when she had gone to dispose of her soft drink bottle. She told the court that the bag the police seized from her does not belong to her.
Dutta, a popular face in the Bengali television industry as well, was sent to one-day judicial custody after her bail plea was rejected by the court.
Presented before the Bidhannagar Court Monday evening, Dutta has been sent to four days of judicial custody. The police will interrogate her further, say sources.
She has been booked under Sections 379 (theft) and 411 (knowingly receiving stolen property) of the Indian Penal Code, both punishable with imprisonment for up to three years, or a fine, or both.
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Harassment allegations against Anurag Kashyap, Mahesh Bhatt
In 2020, Rupa Dutta had made allegations of sexual harassment against Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap.
Dutta shared a screenshot of an alleged chat with Kashyap, which later turned out to be fake. She made similar allegations against filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, but none was proven.
On her social media page, Dutta identifies herself as president of Karni Sena, a Right-wing outfit based out of Rajasthan who were in news for their protests against films like Jodhaa Akbar and Padmaavat for the way it portrayed the Rajput community.
(Edited by Saikat Niyogi)
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