Source: TOI
This whole episode has thrown up several questions. Bombay Times spoke to a member of Hrithik's legal team, and asked him a few pertinent questions.
Why did Hrithik react to a random statement about 'silly exes'?
Hrithik had been on the receiving end of exaggerated forms of attention over a period of time. Given the nature of circumstances within his private life that demanded his immediate attention, he chose to ignore all manifestations of such unwarranted and completely undesired for attention. There has been a long period of harassment over two years that Hrithik has suffered, but it was in private through an incessant barrage of emails. All this he went through without reacting, hoping to discourage the behaviour. When the 'silly ex' comment was made, he was familiar with the depth of this entire thing. So something that is coming across as a very innocuous or inconsequential reference to all of us, was indeed a very serious situation for him. After being harassed in private, this was now threatening to becoming a public one. When there has not been emotional or physical relationship of any kind, then where does the question of being a 'silly ex' even arise?
Why did Hrithik go via the legal route?
The legal route is now preferred by Hrithik because for him there is absolutely nothing to hide. The law and judiciary are equal for all and their findings are based on facts and evidence as against opinions, assumptions and perceptions.
Why did Hrithik say that Kangana has Asperger's syndrome?
He didn't say that she was suffering. She did. She has been confessing in her communication that in this syndrome people sometimes have imaginary relationships and she named it Asperger's. He only quoted her words with the date of the email. Hrithik mentioned this in his notice, hoping elders in her family would intervene and help her. He was told that a legal notice is private and not a document that will be carelessly circulated in media.
What are the questions that you want to ask those who are blaming him for this mess?
Stop. Think. Don't buy stereotypical narratives of gender and class so easily. Why has she not been adequately questioned? Common sense demands some credible evidence of the so called seven years of relationship ending with an engagement in Paris, like selfies, engagement pictures, even a paparazzi picture, or anything. Don't empower a person of any gender, so much that he or she can first create a mass illusion and secondly get away with it. It's not a matter of shame that we have believed her, but it's a matter of shame that we have undermined commonsensical questions.
What is he hoping the legal battle will establish?
The simple truth. Hrithik was never in an intimate/personal relationship with the person concerned. That's it. He is hoping to establish the nature of untruth that is being spoken and circulated. He stands firm in his decision to bring to light the fact that all statements implicating him to be a willing partner in a relationship with the person concerned are false. He will do all that is necessary to do so within the ambit of the law. Also, we are forgetting the complexity of the situation. There is a responsibility and an ongoing investigation to catch the impersonator here who has been the trigger to fuel an already underlying silent obsession of a woman. For that he must show all the evidence he has.
The problem is that we don't really believe that a woman can harass a man. It always has to be the other way round. Hrithik has practically no involvement in this at all. The relationship transpired between the identity thief and the lady in question who, when once was made aware, shockingly carried forward that email relationship to Hrithik's real email id.
Tabloid bred accusations and insinuations will have little bearing on the truth. Hrithik remains assured and confident that truth will vindicate him sooner than later.
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Hrithik Roshan gives more ‘proof’, cops to meet Kangana Ranaut soon
Source: TOI
By: Swati Deshpande
Hrithik Roshan's lawyer, Dipesh Mehta, on Monday, submitted additional information to the police to aid the ongoing probe into the actor's complaint that an imposter sent mails from a fake email account purported to be his. Meanwhile, the police said they plan to record the statement of actor Kangana Ranaut as a witness in the case on April 30.
The cyber crime cops were to visit Kangana Ranaut's house on Monday at 11.30 am, to record her statement and inspect her computer and electronic devices, but postponed the trip after her lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee, said she was not available.
Roshan's lawyer has given the cyber crime division of Mumbai police a bunch of nearly 40 "additional emails" allegedly sent by Ranaut to his original email address in 2014 after May 24, saying they "shall be vital in the ongoing probe." In his complaint to the police, Hrithik said that on May 24, 2014, at a party hosted by Karan Johar for his birthday, "Ranaut met me and thanked me for appreciating her work in the movie 'Queen.'" He told her he had not even seen the film and when she told him about his reply to her mails, he had told her that was not his account.
He had lodged a complaint with the cops in December, 2014, about the alleged imposter but mentioned that it was his fans because "he had not wished to tarnish anyone's image," the complaint stated.
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Hrithik Roshan-Kangana Ranaut feud: E-mail ID of impostor traced to America
Source: Mid Day
By Saurabh Vaktania
The e-mail ID that wreaked a legal havoc in the lives of Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut has been traced, all the way across the seven seas. According to sources, cops have traced the IP address of the fake email id to the USA, in the fake e-mail ID case registered by Hrithik at the cyber police station.
Hrithik has repeatedly claimed he never spoke to Kangana over e-mail. On the other hand, Kangana still claims that it was Hrithik who was communicating with her and all allegations and stories by him are fake.
Cops say
A senior police officer from cyber police station said, “We are investigating the matter. Hrithik had given information about impostor conversing through the e-mail ID hroshan@email.com. We traced the IP address of the ID, and got location of a place in America. We suspect the e-mail is entirely operating from America.”
The officer added, “Hrithik has claimed Kangana was conversing with the said impostor. After the matter came to light, Hrithik tried to call Kangana and explain the situation but she never took his calls. On the other side, Kangana has claimed that Hrithik was the one who was chatting with her.” Police officials said the exchanged e-mails contain extremely private pictures and videos. An ugly battle between the two stars ensued after Hrithik sent a legal notice to Kangana, to which she issued a counter-notice. It got murkier, when Hrithik named Kangana in the FIR, which he recently filed on the matter, claiming she was the person conversing with his impostor. Cops had even sent summons to Kangana, asking her to give a statement, but she did not pay a visit to the cyber police station in BKC. -
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Source: TOI
Perhaps, many people do not understand the importance of the fake email ID and its operator in this messy and volatile episode between Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut. The fact of the matter, and a rather bizarre one, is that a huge part of the alleged relationship seems to have transpired on emails. There are no pictures of the actors together outside the professional stage in their alleged relationship that spanned seven years. The entire case seems to be the case of two email IDs — an imposter (claiming to be Hrithik) and Kangana — which apparently led to exchange of emails between Kangana's real email ID and Hrithik's fake ID.
It's extremely important to find out who was operating the third email ID. And for this, the police needs Kangana's co-operation.
As per reports in a section of the media, Kangana and her sister Rangoli were served a notice by the Senior Inspector of Police, Crime Branch, CID, asking them to come to the office and record their statements. It was made clear to them that it was also pertinent for the investigation to analyse the digital documents and for the actress to allow access to her laptop.
Kangana and Rangoli were reportedly told that they had to co-operate, failing which they may face action. According to sources in the department, the police are slightly perplexed about why the actress is reluctant to co-operate.
On the other hand, Hrithik is feeling harassed by the entire episode that has become more of a media game than anything else. In the only statement by the actor, he has targeted the imposter and categorically said that he has absolutely no involvement in this matter, and has refuted allegations of any kind of a relation with Kangana, except a professional one. The media-shy actor just wants the truth to come out and is willing to totally co-operate with the cops.
The insider continues, "He is losing time and has two big projects — 'Mohenjo Daro' and 'Kaabil' — to concentrate on. The entire fracas is preventing him from concentrating on things which actually matter."
At the time of going to press, sources indicated that the Cyber Crime officials are reportedly planning to take action against Kangana and Rangoli if they fail to record their statements.
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Source: Mid Day
By: Shubha Shetty Saha
After much drama, the legal tussle between actors Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut seems that it could be headed towards resolution, with Ranaut being sent a notice by the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police, requesting her to appear as witness in the e-mail 'impostor' case within 48 hours or be liable to face prosecution.
The summons, which is addressed to Kangana and her sister Rangoli, reads, "As it is pertinent for the investigation to analyse the digital documents, whose access you reserve, and record your statement. You are requested to intimate the date-time and place of your convenience so that the undersigned the conduct the interview within two days of receipt of the summons... failure to abide shall attract liability u/s (under Section) 174 of IPC." Violation of the section attracts punishment of imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month, or fine of Rs 500, or both.
Sources said a copy of the notice had been e-mailed to both parties and a constable would hand-deliver it to Kangana today. "Hrithik has been a disturbed man ever since he found out about an impostor who had stolen his identity to chat with people two years ago. It affected him deeply that was someone was posing as him and chatting with Kangana. He felt victimised," a friend of Hrithik's said.
When Hrithik had approached the cell to lodge an FIR in December 2014, he didn't reveal Kangana's identity, claims the friend, since he felt she too was a victim and wanted to protect her identity. "He did not want her to be dragged into the case. Hence, he said a 'fan' was in touch with the impostor. Things, however, got complicated over the last two years. He felt Kangana wasn't convinced with the impostor theory and continued exchanging mails," the friend said.
He added that when Kangana continued to hint at him as an "ex", Hrithik was forced to send her a legal notice on February 26 this year. She then responded with a 21-page missive of her own. Since then, things have gone downhill. On April 7, hitlist reported how a laptop owned by Kangana had become a key piece of evidence in the case. While sources said, she had demanded a copy of the FIR before appearing before the cyber police, her lawyer insisted that she was never asked to surrender the contentious laptop as part of the probe.
A senior officer of the cell, requesting anonymity, said, "The cell has every right to send a notice to a witness if they are convinced that he or she has evidence which could work in favour of the investigation." About Kangana receiving a copy of the FIR, he added, "A witness is not entitled to see the FIR copy; only the complainant has access to it. Under circumstances where the witness is not willing to co-operate, it is fully legitimate on the police's part to take action against the witness for not appearing and withholding evidence that could work for the case."
DCP (cyber crime) M Rajkumar, said, "The complaint is against an unknown criminal. We are doing our best to crack the case. How we are going about it, we are not ready to divulge to the media." He refused to comment when hitlist asked him if Kangana was entitled to receive a copy of Hrithik's FIR.
Kangana's lawyer claimed she had not received the said notice till the time of going to press. The only way for Hrithik's name to be cleared in the ongoing controversy is if Kangana shares her witness account with the police and the impostor is nabbed. "What disturbs him (Hrithik) is that Kangana has misunderstood his intentions and is refraining from meeting the cops as a witness and handing over her laptop despite repeated requests," the friend said. When contacted, Hrithik simply said, "My target isn't Kangana; it is the impostor."
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Some uncovered layers of Hrithik-Kangana controversy!
Source: Absolute India
By: Kunal M Shah
Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut's ongoing legal battle has many more layers than we believe
Out of the many sub-plots that comprise the ongoing Hrithik Roshan-Kangana Ranaut saga, the most confusing one would be the romantic thread. So far, the actress has alleged the existence of a relationship between the two of them since mid-2013 and at the very least – a relationship that blossomed through ‘email’ exchanges and ran the gamut of all milestones, including misunderstandings, break-ups, reunions and even a chase from Switzerland to Paris where they allegedly got engaged.
On the other hand, since the day he broke his silence on the matter, Hrithik has maintained that the recipient of Kangana’s intimate and explicit emails was an impostor. This individual had been carrying on a correspondence with her under the guise of the actor under a fake email ID. Kangana had immediately refuted the existence of the impostor through her lawyer and maintained her stance that it was really the actor.
However, a friend of Hrithik’s has now further clarified his side of the matter. According to the source, the first time Hrithik became aware of this alleged correspondence was at a party hosted by a major Bollywood director in May 2014, almost two years after the principal shooting of Krrish 3 had ended.
Kangana approached Hrithik and thanked him for the last email he sent her. Taken aback by this and on being informed of the email address of her correspondent, he immediately clarified that the email ID, in question, did not belong to him. He also informed her of his actual address. However, Kangana refused to believe that she had been communicating with an impostor for nine months and thereafter began to direct her subsequent emails to Hrithik’s actual ID. It was after this turn of events that Hrithik brought the case to Mumbai’s cybercrime cell to officially announce that an impostor bearing his name has been corresponding with fans and industry insiders alike using the email ID hroshan@email.com. He did not name her so as to not cause embarrassment.
Apparently, the emails from Kangana did not subside and the actor has received a barrage of mails from her for almost a year running into over a thousand mails without replying to even a single one. He made several attempts to contact her family and loved ones to put an end to the issue, but all in vain. Finally, in an effort to stop the harassment and to solve the matter both privately with dignity, the actor chose legal recourse. Hrithik has already maintained that his major intention behind the legal notice was to bring her actions to the attention of her family without causing her any public embarrassment. But, by making the contents of the notice public, Kangana had entirely defeated his intent.
It seems highly unlikely that a relationship between two highly visible celebrities had managed to fly under the radar for over two years until the first rumours started circulating last year. There’s no visual evidence of the pair ever having been spotted together at any point of time other than at professional events and at common parties.
Considering the invasive reach of today’s paparazzi, it is doubtful that secrecy could have been maintained for so long. A closer look at the facts of the case only casts even more doubt on the veracity of all the actress’s claims.
Another pertinent question is now - why is she refusing to meet cybercrime? What is she afraid of? Does she have something to hide?
Kangana and Siddique have also accused Hrithik of hacking her account and then changed that accusation to ‘Hrithik’s people having hacked her account’ and subsequently, completely retracted that statement.
What one can’t fathom is that if she still does not believe there was an imposter then why doesn’t she get the proof through cybercrime by allowing them access to her email ID/ laptop and put an end to this matter? Instead, she seems to be riding high and using the feminist victim card to sway the media away from the truth and if that is true then its outrageous.
Makes one question whether their claims against Hrithik have any solid or factual basis. Her actions counter her claims and the central complaint keeps changing. It makes one wonder – how much of the story we have been told till now is the truth?