"I had links with Dawood."
Marathi actress Deepali Sayed has responded to allegations that she has connections to organised crime.
Her former personal assistant reportedly held a press conference on April 4, 2023, and made the claims.
Baburao Shinde claimed Deepali had accepted Pakistani citizenship and owned properties in London and Dubai.
He also alleged that the actress had links to the underworld in Dubai and Pakistan, which includes an association with notorious criminal Dawood Ibrahim.
Deepali has since broken her silence on the allegations.
The actress filed a police complaint against Baburao, claiming that he threatened to kill her and attempted to defame her.
In her complaint, Deepali said: “Shinde claimed that I had links with the underworld.
“Said my real name is Sofia Sayed and that I had accepted Pakistani citizenship. He claimed that I had made a fake passport to stay in India and even had a bank account in a Pakistani bank.
“He even said that I own properties in London and Dubai. He also threatened to kill me.”
Baburao had also claimed that Deepali had scammed people while acting on behalf of her charitable trust, which had organised a mass wedding.
He alleged that this was done just to raise money for the trust.
Deepali’s complaint continued: “He took my photographs with a choreographer, morphed it by swapping the face of the choreographer with Iqbal Kaskar’s, Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, and claimed that I had links with Dawood.
“That’s why I lodged a case against him.”
Deepali Sayed added that Baburao worked for the trust until 2019.
He was dismissed after he was caught taking auditions of women for a Marathi film without her knowledge.
Following her complaint, police registered a case against Baburao under sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) and 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.
However, no arrest has been made yet.
A police officer said:
“We are probing the case and based on the outcome we will decide if an arrest should be made in future.”
“We may summon him for cooperating with the ongoing investigation.”
Deepali Sayed predominantly works in the Marathi film industry. She made her film debut in 1990 after acting in the popular Marathi shows Bandani and Samantar.
The actress has featured in more than 30 Marathi films.
In 2014, she ran for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from the Ahmednagar constituency. In 2019, she switched from AAP to Shiv Sena.
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