Raju Sapte Suicide: Filmmakers to form committee to address harassment concerns

Marathi art director Raju Sapte recently committed suicide after alleged harassment by someone from the Labor Union. Before taking the extreme step, Raju Sapte had shot a video of himself in which he named the person who, he claimed, had harassed him.n the video, Raju Sapte said that he had been facing some issues for a few days and was being harassed by someone from Labor Union. The person was deliberately asking some labourers to spread wrong message regarding payment defaults on his part. “I have no dues. I have been paying regularly. I have five projects and I have to start work immediately,” Raju said, adding that the person was not letting him work on one of the projects. “I can't start any work. Recently, I had to leave my one project for the same reason. As a protest against this, I am committing suicide today,” he said in the video.

Now according to a Pinkvilla report, producers and filmmakers are planning to form a committee to address such issues. Talking about the same, Joint Commissioner of Law And Order, Vishwas Nangare Patil said, “We have devised a plan of action. In fact, I have just finished a meeting with the producers, art directors and other members of various departments. All my senior inspectors, DCPs and ACPs also attended the meeting to understand the challenges faced by them and grievances are redressed immediately. The Mumbai Police will be working on this plan along with Mira Bhayandar and other units where maximum shootings take place. All the ACPs will be coordinating in the case.”

Patil also asserted that the cops have received several complaints about the film unions and producers have said that they are forced to make the payments to them. He emphasised that while these complaints will be addressed, pending complaints about the destruction of sets by notorious people will also be taken into consideration. “If there are old complaints pending, action will be taken and complaints that have not been registered will be registered and FIR will be filed in those cases. Our home minister has said that there should be fearlessness in the film industry when he held a meeting with them so we are acting on it. A WhatsApp group is being formed and I am going to be part of it for some time to streamline the process and functioning of the group,” Patil added. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Patil has also held a meeting with the producers and filmmakers and wants them to work fearlessly.