'Pearl V Puri is innocent': Ekta Kapoor writes after speaking to mother of victim

Ekta Kapoor penned a strong note after Pearl V Puri was arrested on rape charges. The producer, who had cast him in Naagin 3, claimed that she had spoken to the mother of the victim, who lodged the complaint against the actor and she had stated that he was innocent. Ekta expressed her displeasure about Pearl being allegedly dragged into a marital dispute and custody battle with misuse of the 'Me too' movement. 

Ekta Kapoor pens strong note on Pearl V Puri’s arrest

Ekta, who had worked with Pearl, asked her fans if she will ever ‘support a child molester or molester of any kind.’ The producer stated that what she witnessed last night was an ‘absolute low in human depravity’.

She asked why a ‘third person’ was being dragged into a fight. Ekta stated that the victim’s mother told her that the victim’s husband was ‘trying to create stories’ in a custody battle for their child, to prove that ‘working mother on a set cannot take care of her kid.’ She stated that if this was indeed true, then it was ‘wrong on many levels.’

She then spoke about the ‘Me Too’ movement, that had led to many celebrities opening up on facing sexual misconduct. Ekta wrote that an ‘extremely important movement’ was being used frivolously to achieve an ‘agenda’ and in this, case, it also involved ‘mentally torturing a child’ and 'making an innocent person guilty.' She stated that while the court, and not her, was to decide on ‘who is right & wrong’, she had all voice notes with victim’s mother to believe that 'Pearl is innocent.'

She then stated that film industry was safe or unsafe as any other industry, and to give it a ‘bad name’, like in this case, of there being ‘predators’ on set, was the ‘lowest form of low ever’. Ekta urged her followers to look ‘more deeply’ on how movements like #MeToo were being used unfairly, ‘reducing the gravitas of the situation.’ She also used the hashtag ‘May Justice Prevail’.

Pearl V Puri was arrested by the Mumbai/Waliv Police on Friday. "He was arrested in connection with the rape of a minor," the Mumbai Police confirmed. He was booked under Section 376 of IPC & POCSO Act.