Bhubaneswar: Jogeswar Naik, an Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer, is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Naik has landed in trouble for allegedly outraging the modesty of an Odia album actress. Naik, who is a former deputy commissioner of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), has been detained by the police following a complaint lodged by the actress – Priyanka Dash.
29-year-old Priyanka Das is a resident of Shreeram Nagar in the Old Town area under Lingaraj police limits in the capital city and owns a salon and spa here.
Priyanka has alleged in an FIR that Naik had sought undue favour from the woman. On the basis of the complaint, the police detained Naik for interrogation.
According to an official of Lingaraj police station, Naik reportedly sought undue favour from the woman by promising her to be cast in an Odia album in September 2020. When the woman rejected Naik’s proposal, the accused hurled abuses and harassed her mentally.
“In 2020, he (Naik) produced an album for me and since then he has been asking me to sleep with him. Moreover, he blackmailed me and threatened that if I don’t give in then he will spread rumours that I am a sex worker and charge Rs 10,000 for this. Despite my objections, he kept on threatening me and calling me (over the mobile phone) every night. He used filthy words during conversations,” the complainant expressed.
Speaking to the media, Priyanka Das said, “I have been working in the industry since 2010. Didn’t I get a director and producer for a movie that I would work under him? It is true that he had paid me Rs 2 to Rs 2.5 lakh to act in an album song, which has been already released. His wife was the producer of the video song. He had gone to my saloon and misbehaved with my employees.”
On the other hand, Naik repudiated Priyanka’s allegation saying that she has framed him to avoid paying back the Rs 4 lakh she had allegedly taken from him. “She had taken the money from me to repay the loan amount she had taken to open a salon. When I asked her to return the money in installments, she has been avoiding me since 2020. Security personnel at the salon misbehaved with me when I went there. So, I was forced to go to her house this morning to ask for the money,” he alleged.
