'Bellbottom' casting director refutes rape accused Ayush Tewari's involvement with film

Earlier on Monday, November 30, an unnamed Television actress accused a casting director of rape. She stated that the casting director Ayush Tiwari promised her a marriage and in the pretext of it, raped her.

Media reports claimed that Ayush was working on the Bollywood film 'BellBottom', which stars Akshay Kumar in the lead role. The casting director of the movie, Vaibhav Vishant issued a clarification on the same through a public statement.

Clarifying that the person accused in media reports was an intern with the organisation, Vaibhav said that the accused has nothing to do with the film 'Bellbottom'.

Vaibhav Vishant said, "It is distressing to see the film and the names of others associated with the film being tarnished with false and unverified allegations. I am the casting director of Bellbottom. The individual Ayush Tewari was a freelancer intern in my company and has nothing to do with the film or its casting. He has not worked on 'Bellbottom' in any capacity. It is extremely upsetting to see that some publications in order to get a clickbait headline will go to any lengths to put out uncorroborated and unsubstantiated information. This individual Ayush Tewari has nothing to do with Bellbottom. I hope the police will conduct a fair investigation and justice will be served. However, I will request media publications to correct the facts and stop linking 'Bellbottom' to this case."

The actress filed a First Information Report on November 26 at the Versova police station, Mumbai Police confirmed. The accused and the victim have been in a relationship for two years, the police said.

The accused had apparently promised the actress that he would marry her, but later he refused to do so.

"An actress has accused her boyfriend of two years, of rape. It was under the pretext of marriage. We have registered FIR against the accused under Indian Penal Code Section 376," Versova's senior police inspector Raghvendra Thakur told IANS on Monday.

"The investigation is going on. Arrest is yet to be made," he added.

(with inputs from IANS)