#MeToo: Conservationist levels sexual harassment allegation against eminent artist Jatin Das

Bhubaneswar: Adding a fresh chapter to the ongoing #MeToo campaign against sexual exploitation of women in the society, a green activist and previous assistant of eminent artist Jatin Das levelled sexual harassment charges against him.

Bora, who is also the founder of Elrhino Paper posted a long tweet to narrate how the winner of Padma Bhusan and father of famous actress Nandita Das forcibly kissed and groped her 14 years ago in 2004.

In her post Bora informed that the ordeal came her way after she met with Das at an event along with her father-in-law in the summer of 2004 at a dinner event at the India International Centre, Delhi when she was 28 years old.

“I visited Jatin in his studio, which was in Khidki Village. I don’t recall the time of day, but that it was well within daylight hours. He poured himself some whiskey; offered me one too, but I refused. The next thing I knew, he attempted to grab me. I wriggled out of his embrace, flustered. Then he did it again. This time, he managed a clumsy kiss on my lips. I recall the feeling of his beard on my skin. I pushed him away, and moved away from him. At that moment, he said, Come on, it would be nice. Or something like that. What I recall clearly was his disbelief that I was pushing back,” In her tweet Bora wrote.

However, Das in his reaction to the allegation dubbed it as false and baseless and claimed that it has been made to grab public attention.