Bollywood actress Meera Chopra, cousin of American-Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, broke her silence two months after an incident of cheating, accusing her interior designer Rajinder Dewan of "outraging and insulting a woman's modesty".
The actress told news website Bollywood Hungama that a few months ago, she signed an agreement worth INR1.7 million ($22,510) with the interior designer to work on her Mumbai residence and paid him 50 percent in advance before leaving to shoot her upcoming project in Banaras city, Uttar Pradesh.
However, when she returned, Meera realised that the designer had used substandard material. When she confronted him, Dewan allegedly abused her in front of the labourers and pushed her out of her own property.
“…He got extremely abusive in front of all the workers… He pushed me out of my own house,” she said.
Shocked by the incident, Meera filed a police complaint against Rajinder under charges of "outraging a woman's modesty, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation".
She alleged that it has been two months since the incident, but no action has been taken so far by the police.
“I was quiet about it. But as a girl staying alone in Mumbai, I can only go to get help to a certain extent. I don’t have family here. I know some people here [...] There’s a police department and they are supposed to do their work,” Meera said.
She took to social media to highlight the injustice and also tagged Maharashtra chief Uddhav Thackeray, his son, Maharashtra Environment and Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray, and Shiv Sena politician Sanjay Raut to seek help.
She has claimed that the interior designer refused to return the balance and is untraceable.
Meera said that after tweeting about the incident, several people reached out to her and shared that they too had faced a tough time with their interior designers and this has become a serious problem in Mumbai.
“I had tweeted my grievance and a lot of people replied that most interior designers dupe people. So I am also trying to create awareness... and police should take immediate action...It’s happening on a serious basis, especially in Mumbai. In our city, [nobody has that much time to go and see the house daily]. Hence, the whole arrangement works on trust and these people take unfair advantage of it,” Meera said.