Choreographer Jani Master gets interim bail

Hyderabad: A city court has granted interim bail to cinema choreographer Jani Master, who was arrested last month for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman who worked with him.

The court on Thursday granted interim bail to Jani Master, whose real name is Shaik Jani Basha, from October 6 to October 10, after he filed the bail application to attend the National Film Awards ceremony, scheduled in Delhi next week.

He has been directed to appear before the court on October 10, a police official said.

Jani Master was apprehended in Goa by the Cyberabad police on September 19 and brought to Hyderabad and produced before a city court which had remanded him to 14-day judicial custody.

The woman, who worked as Jani Master’s assistant choreographer, in a complaint with the police, had alleged that Jani Master had sexually assaulted her in 2020 during a work trip to Mumbai and continued sexual harassment and also threatened her not to disclose it to anyone.

On September 15, the Narsingi Police had registered a case under sections 376(2)(n), 506, 323 of IPC.

On recording her statement, it was disclosed that she was a minor at the time of the alleged offence. Therefore, a relevant section of the POCSO Act, 2012 was added, police said.

As per the victim’s statement, the accused committed sexual assault on her multiple times from 2020 at various places–different shooting spots and locations, including the victim’s house and harassed her demanding sexual favours besides allegedly, forced her to marry him.