Sona Mohapatra calls Kailash Kher ‘serial predator’, also names Anu Malik

Sona Mohapatra and Kailash Kher (Photo: Instagram)


Singer Sona Mohapatra, who has always been vocal about social issues, has accused Kailash Kher of sexual misconduct. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the 42-year-old singer spoke up in a series of tweets about her experience and called out Kher for his alleged inappropriate behaviour.

On 9 October, Sona took to micro-blogging site Twitter and shared her story.

“I met Kailash for coffee in Prithvi Cafe to discuss a forthcoming concert where both our bands were playing and after the usual, a hand on my thigh with lines likes, you’re so beautiful, feel so good that a ‘musician got you’ (Ram) not an actor. I left soon after,” she wrote.

Also read: Veteran writer-producer Vinta Nanda accuses Alok Nath of rape

“That did not deter Kailash Kher though. On landing in Dhaka and on my way to the venue with the organisers, keeps calling me and when I don’t pick up, calls the organisers phone to get through to me and asks me to ‘skip’ the sound check and join him in his room instead to ‘catch up’,” she tweeted. In a separate tweet, Mohapatra added that Kher did not appear to hold back even when he “knew me to be as strong as I am or that he had only recently taken a favour from my partner Ram”, read her follow-up tweet.

Besides Kailash Kher, Sona Mohapatra also called out singer Anu Malik in a different post that she shared on Instagram. “This guy, Kailash Kher is a serial predator and has been for years as are many others like Anu Malik in the industry,” she wrote.

Earlier, a journalist narrated her ordeal on Twitter and accused Kailash Kher of inappropriately touching her during an interview in Muscat.

On Monday, in an interview to IANS, Kailash Kher “sincerely” apologised for his behaviour and said, “I am almost all the time in my own simple world, but in case anyone has taken or thought something differently about anything, then it is my sincere apology. My devotion to music makes me who I am and I am thankful for all the love and support.”

Read more: Hrithik Roshan on Vikas Bahl | All proven offenders must be punished

Sona Mohapatra went on to comment on his apology and said it would “take a lifetime” to apologise to so many women. “The shamelessness of this man. To call himself ‘simple’, ‘devoted to music’ & even claiming amnesia. If this chap could dare try this stunt with me, it’s a disease that he has & I can vouch for not only these two women’s stories but hundreds more he would’ve have preyed on,” her tweet read.

Several women in the Hindi film industry are opening up and supporting their colleagues and contemporaries for bravely calling out their predators.