Bhubaneswar: Ollywood actor-comedian Tatwa Prakash Satpathy, popularly known as Papu Pom Pom, has been given a clean chit in the 2016 casting couch case, involving a minor girl.
A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court here on Tuesday acquitted him in the case after the complaintant herself refuted the allegation about 6 months ago, sources said.
The girl had lodged a complaint against Papu Pom Pom on June 25, 2016, accusing the actor of making sexual advances on the pretext of providing her with a break in Ollywood.
Two days later, Mahila Police in Bhubaneswar registered a case against the actor and his friend Pradip Kumar Swain aka Gitu on the basis of a complaint by a member of the Child Welfare Committee, Khurda, Nirupama Rath. He was charged under Sections 354 (A), 506, 509 and 34 IPC and Sections 8 and 12 of the POCSO Act.
The actor and his aide were arrested from an apartment in Puri on June 30, 2016, after a prolonged manhunt and granted bail by the Orissa High Court on August 10 that year.
