Molestation row with Ness: Preity Zinta's trial by social media

A former star actress, a little down on luck at the present. The son of one of the country’s foremost business families. Both page three fixtures. Actress Preity Zinta and industrialist Ness Wadia’s relationship, even before the actress levelled molestation charges against her ex-beau, was always stuff tabloid fantasies are made out of. Zinta started dating Wadia in 2005, in the prime of her career. Unlike most other actors, who like to keep their personal life under wraps, Zinta was open about her relationship with Wadia right from the start. From being pictured together at weddings and parties, to co-owing an IPL team, their romance seemed like picture-perfect. Till it ended in 2011. According to reports on TV channels, Zinta had offered to give up her stakes in the IPL team post break-up but the ‘other owners’ persuaded her to stay on. They were considered to have remained cordial despite the break-up and though both were linked to different people at different points of time, there was no public display of resentment. [caption id=“attachment_1571247” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia in happier times. AFP.[/caption] However, as the events unfolded over the last two days, Ness Wadia issued a ‘shocked’ denial saying, “It is disgusting that she would stoop to this level for media attention.” On the other had, Zinta explained that the row in Wankhede Stadium left her ‘fearing for her life’, reason why she decided to lodge the complaint. She states in her complaint: “During the match on 30th May, 2014 at Wankhede stadium in the evening, Ness Wadia intimidated me by saying he could make me disappear as I was a nobody and only an actress and he’s a powerful person."   “For some time now, we are not even talking to each other. In between, once or twice, we had heated argument regarding work and during that time he tried to abuse me, and used extremely derogatory language and tried to misbehave in a manner where I was put to shame in front of my colleagues, friends and family. I’ve orally warned him during that time and told him I was not comfortable with such behaviour,” she added. However, not everyone is convinced that Zinta had any real reason to worry. Zinta’s critics took to Twitter to attribute motive to her behaviour and mostly seemed to echo Wadia’s sentiments.

Bollywood has remained uncannily silent on the issue, save a Mahesh Bhatt or Saif Ali Khan. Saif Ali Khan, speaking to TV channels, told, “I don’t know what happened. Can’t comment on the incident. Whatever happened, it is very unfortunate. Both are friends,” he said. Bhatt said that the end of the relationship was ‘unfortunate’. Despite the resounding silence of her brethren, a few enterprising people in social media did point out that the questions raised on the authenticity and relevance of Zinta’s complaints were in pure bad taste. They even slammed the TV channel that came up with the hashtag #PreityNessMess underlining how calling a complaint of molestation a ‘mess’, trivializes the seriousness of the crime.