#MeToo: Nandita Das's father painter Jatin Das accused of sexual harassment

Padma Bhushan recipient artist Jatin Das, father of actor-director Nandita Das, has been accused of sexually harassing a woman in the ongoing #MeToo campaign.

Padma Bhushan recipient artist Jatin Das. Photo: AFP

NEW DELHI: Nisha Bora, the co-founder of a paper-making company, has claimed that she was sexually harassed 14 years ago by noted painter Jatin Das, father of actor-director Nandita Das. The woman took to Twitter to level these allegations against Jatin Das, who is also a Padma Bhushan recipient. Describing the incident, Bora, who was 28 years old then, said Das during a dinner event asked whether she "had time and willingness to assist him for few days to organise his work material", and after she gave her approval on second day -- at his Khidki village studio -- he molested her. "... He attempted to grab me. I wriggled out of his embrace, flustered. Then he did it again... 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 was his disbelief that I was pushing back. I picked my bag... and ran home. Never to speak about it. Until now," she said. In her post, she also mentioned that two days later, she received a call from his daughter, renowned actor-director Nandita Das, who wanted to know if "she could help her find a young female assistant (like myself)". "She introduced herself (Nandita) to me and said that her father had given her my number... Today, the brazenness of that man is making me breathless. "At that time, I recall the phone call felt like a knife being twisted in my gut because I had so, so much admiration for her, and it all become so incredibly filthy at that time," she added. "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... "I worked myself into a hole believing that talking about it would make trouble... I felt that somehow I landed myself into this spot and that it was my problem to deal with. I felt guilty and ashamed," said Bora, adding that she is younger than Das' daughter, filmmaker-actor Nandita Das. Jatin Das, however, denied all the allegations and said these days a "game" is going on to level allegations against people for the "fun" of it. He labelled the allegations against him as "vulgar". "I am shocked. All kinds of things are happening these days... Some people do things and some people make allegations. I don't know her, I have never met her, and even if I did met somebody somewhere one doesn't behave like this... It is vulgar. "There is a game going on, some people are real have done some things while some people are making allegations for the fun of it," Das told PTI. (With inputs from agencies)