MUMBAI (Reuters) – A Mumbai court on Monday remanded Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja to three days in police custody after police charged him with raping his teenaged maid, his lawyer said.
Ahuja, 36, faces a prison sentence of at least seven years if found guilty of rape, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement charges.
The actor, who made his debut with the critically-acclaimed film “Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi” in 2003, arrived in court on Monday with his face covered with a black cloth to avoid TV cameras.
“My client is co-operating with investigations and all media reports saying he has confessed are wrong,” Ahuja’s lawyer Shrikant Shivade told Reuters on the phone.
“Whatever he says in front of the police cannot be counted as a confession,” Shivade said.
On Sunday, a maid working at Ahuja’s house accused the actor of raping her. Ahuja was questioned by police the same night and arrested on Monday.
The Indian film industry was shocked by news of Ahuja’s arrest.
“It is a death knell for his career. I don’t think you can ever recover from such a heinous allegation,” filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who produced the Ahuja-starrer “Woh Lamhe”, told Reuters.
“If he is guilty, then as an industry we must express our outrage at the incident,” Bhatt said.
Ahuja is married and has a two-year-old daughter.