- Bangalore, Dec 31 (IANS) Tamil actress Ranjitha Friday denied that she was the woman in a sex romp video involving self-styled godman Nityananda Swami.
"I am not the woman in the video," Ranjitha said at a press meet here in her first public appearance after the sex scandal broke out in March.
"What has happened in the last few months has been fabricated," Ranjita, who Thursday lodged a police complaint against Lenin Karuppan, former driver of Nityananda who caught the swami in the sex act and then released the video clippings.
Ranjitha said she had no knowledge about alleged sexual exploitation by the swami. "I do not know anything about this. I came to know only from media reports."
She, however, asserted: "I am a devotee of Nityananda and will remain so."
Ranjitha claimed that media had hounded and maligned her just because she was a public personality.
She denied she had absconded after the video was telecast, first by some Tamil TV channels.
"I was scared. I was threatened. Hence I left for the United States on March 3 and returned on June 14," Ranjitha said.
"I am an ordinary woman with my own fears. I did not know what will happen to me or to my parents. So I went off. I was not absconding," she said.
The actress said she decided to come into the open as "I was tired of being hounded and maligned when I had not done any wrong".
In the complaint she filed with Ramanagaram police Thursday, she accused Lenin and two others of maligning her image.
Ranjitha said she has been a devotee of Nityananda for over a year now as she was interested in social work and spirituality. She said the video episode had harmed her career but she was still getting offers.
"I have been in the film world for 18 years now. This episode did harm my career but I am still getting offers."
Nityananda has been chargesheeted by the police with rape, unnatural sex, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. Four associates, including a woman, have also been chargesheeted.
Nityananda, who has a sprawling ashram complex at Bidadi about 35 km from here, in Ramanagaram district, is on bail.
Hailing from Tamil Nadu, the swami was arrested from Himachal Pradesh April 21 after being on the run since March 3 when the video clip was telecast on several TV channels.
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