Bhubaneswar: Odia film producer Sanjay Nayak, aka Tutu Nayak was arrested by the police on Saturday for allegedly assaulting a woman journalist in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
The Ollywood producer was arrested after a team of police personnel took him to Kharvela Nagar Police Station in the state capital, according to ACP Bhubaneswar Zone-4 Manas Garnayak.
Nayak was formally arrested after being detained and questioned by the police for a couple of hours regarding the incident that took place on Friday.
The film producer is accused of assaulting and slapping journalist Debasmita Rout on Friday when she was reporting near a cinema hall in the capital city.
The woman journalist later lodged a complaint against Tutu Nayak at the Kharvela Nagar Police Station.
The incident sparked a widespread outrage among people, and multiple FIRs were lodged at different police stations in the state.
Earlier in the day, members of Odisha Women in Media (OWM) called on Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh and submitted a memorandum demanding a fair probe in this connection.
Condemning the incident, members of OWM urged the DCP cop to ensure a safe environment for the working female journalists in the city.
Journalist Debasmita, who works with ETV Bharat, had filed the complaint with Kharavela Nagar Police, accusing him of slapping her without any provocation while covering a film release event at a theatre in the city on Friday.
“Film producer Tutu Nayak slapped me on the face without any reason and hurled abuses at me. It happened so suddenly that I dropped my boom and mobile phone on the ground. As I was picking up the boom and phone, he again hit me on the back,” she said in her complaint..
Speaking to the media, Debasmita said that she felt humiliated as the producer went away smiling when he should have apologised to her for his behaviour.
Based on her complaint, police had initiated a probe and scanned the CCTV footage at the theatre to verify the allegation. An FIR was also been registered against Tutu Nayak under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 294 (use of obscene words) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC.
