Kailash Kher accused of sexual misconduct

Singer Sona Mohapatra has accused singer-composer Kailash Kher of sexual misconduct, claiming he once placed his hands on her thigh.

Mohapatra, who is married to singer-composer Ram Sampath, tweeted on Tuesday about Kher’s misbehaviour during an official meet.

“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 like, ‘You’re so beautiful’, ‘Feel so good that a musician got you [Sampath] and not an actor’. I left not soon after,” Mohapatra wrote.

She said it did not deter Kher.

“On landing in Dhaka and on my way to the venue with the organisers, he 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 soundcheck and join him in his room instead to ‘catch up’. The fact that Kailash had sung in my studios and for many projects in which I was the producer and knew me to be as strong as I am or that he had only recently taken a favour from my partner Ram Sampath to create a personal track for him didn’t stop him. The hubris of such men,” she added.

The singer asked Kher how many women will he apologise to, because if he starts now, it will take him a “lifetime”.

Mohapatra was questioned by social media users about why she was recounting the experience now.

“To all the people accusing me of being so late about bringing up Kailash Kher’s bad behaviour, I say... my life. My choice. Now go, buzz off. (PS: If I started tweeting about every creep I encounter in life here, I would be doing this job full time),” she wrote.

Kher’s name cropped up in the ongoing #MeToo movement for the first time earlier this week after a female journalist recounted how he allegedly misbehaved with her during an interview.

At the time, Kher said in an interview that he was “extremely disappointed” to hear the accusations, and that he was neither aware nor remembered the incident.

“For all those who know me and have come across me, will know how much I respect humanity, especially women, even more for the ones who work in media since their work is difficult,” he said.