New Delhi/IndiaToday: Actress Shweta Basu Prasad, who was in a rescue home after her arrest due to her alleged involvement in a prostitution racket, has broken her silence on the entire matter. Speaking to a daily, Shweta said that she had no clue about the ‘statement’ that had been attributed to her following her arrest and more.
“I came home on Friday (October 31). I’ve no complaints against anyone except the journalist who during my hour of crisis made up a statement attributed to me. That statement was circulated everywhere. I had no idea about it as I had no access to newspapers or websites for two months. It’s only now that I came to know of this,” said the actress, and added, “I was in custody. I wasn’t allowed to speak to my mother and father, then how would I speak to the media? Whoever made up that statement damaged my reputation by saying that all doors were closed on me – no such thing has happened and the film industry has always been very warm and welcoming to me – and that “people encouraged me to get into prostitution to earn money”. These are outrageous lies that I never uttered.”
The ‘statement’ in question, began doing the rounds of the media soon after Shweta’s arrest. She had been quoted by a daily as saying, “I have made wrong choices in my career, and I was out of money. I had to support my family and some other good causes. All the doors were closed, and some people encouraged me to get into prostitution to earn money. I was helpless, and with no option left to choose, I got involved in this act. I’m not the only one who faced this problem, and there are several other heroines who have gone through this phase.” Out of the rescue home now, Shweta refutes the statment and has said that they are tracking down the journalist who attributed the statement to her.
At the age of 10, Shweta had won a National Award for her role in Makdee. Following that, her acting in Iqbal earned her much critical acclaim. When the news of her arrest broke out, it shocked many. Basu was arrested from a hotel in Banjara Hills in Hyderabad, after a police raid. The actress said that she had no clue about it all, and that she had been invited to an awards’ event in Hyderabad, and put up in the hotel that was raided. “I had gone there to attend an awards ceremony. Call it fate or whatever, I missed my flight back in the morning. My air ticket and stay were done by the organisers of the awards function. I still have the ticket. I’ve been told that the agent has been arrested. The case is being investigated. I am a victim in the whole situation. There was a raid… I am not denying the incident. But the facts are not what they’ve been made out to be,” Shweta said.
