Actor Celina Jaitly filed a complaint against Pakistani journalist Umair Sandhu in April after he alleged that she was the ‘only actress in Bollywood who slept with both Father (Feroz Khan) and son (Fardeen Khan) many times.’
Now, in a new interview with India Today, Celina shared why she decided to file an official complaint with the National Commission of Woman (NCW), and how Twitter (now X) 'did nothing' to stop the man's 'baseless, untrue character assassination’.
Celina said, ‘This person created the fake viral content maligning me, thousands of people, including myself, lodged a complaint with Twitter to ban his account. Twitter's auto-generated responses claimed no issues with all his tweets, encouraging him to go on a horrifying spree of baseless, untrue, character assassination via his tweets. He made multiple tweets at my expense, garnering him massive views the whole day, and Twitter still did not do anything... The height of stupidity is that some of the most reputable and credible media outlets report on the lies spread by a Pakistani imposter... He might as well be an ISI agent who is trying to infiltrate the Indian media outlets.’
She shared that the self-proclaimed journalist 'was hiding in Pakistan' and taking legal recourse was not possible for her even as he continued to 'assault her with verbal violence'.
Celina said that after much deliberation, she took the matter to the NCW in India. She added that she doesn't know what the laws in Pakistan are, but is hopeful that laws against cyberbullying are stringent there.
Celina said, ‘I am very grateful that MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) has responded with full support. We need to understand that all processes have their protocols and even my complaint must go through its due process. I have attached MEA’s response to Ms Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, NCW. I will wait for the process to take its due course. I do not know what the laws in Pakistan are, but I am sure the laws for protection of women against cyberbullying, verbal and mental abuse, character assassination are stringent and the Pakistan High Commission will act in accordance with their country’s laws against such crimes.’
Late actor-filmmaker Feroz Khan gave Celina her big break alongside his son, Fardeen Khan in ‘Janasheen’, which was released in 2003.
Also Watch | ‘Barbie' earns $1BN globally: Greta Gerwig is 1st women director to enter Hollywood's billionaire club