Kadambari Jethwani case: a relentless fight for justice

“I had no idea why I was brought to the Juhu Police Station. The arrest came as a rude shock,” Dr. Jethwani recalls.

She alleges that she sustained bruises on her hands and legs as she was manhandled by the police officers at the station. Her cellphones and other electronic devices were confiscated, and she was not allowed to call anyone, even to seek legal aid.

“They didn’t show their ID cards or produce an arrest warrant, even when I insisted,” she says.

Later, she learned that K.V.R. Vidyasagar, who reportedly had political ties to the then-ruling YSR Congress Party in A.P., filed the forgery case against her at the Ibrahimpatnam Police Station.

In the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the A.P. police based on Mr. Vidyasagar’s complaint dated February 2, 2024, against Dr. Jethwani, her parents, and other family members, it was alleged that she made his acquaintance and deceived him by forging the documents of his land and selling it to two unsuspecting individuals for approximately ₹5 lakh without his knowledge.

“The FIR was filed on February 2, and the very next day, I was arrested in Mumbai by a team that had flown down from Vijayawada. Am I a most-wanted terrorist?”Kadambari JethwaniActor

“The FIR was filed on February 2, and the very next day, I was arrested in Mumbai by a team that had flown down from Vijayawada. Am I a most-wanted terrorist?” she asks as she reiterates that she had no knowledge of the alleged forgery and that the incriminating material and documents were planted in her handbag after her arrest.

Senior high-ranking police officers later corroborated her claims. Mr. Gunni, who led the A.P. police team in Mumbai, also admitted to these actions after turning approver.

Endless ordeal

Dr. Jethwani says her ordeal only began with her arrest. Around 7 p.m. on February 3, her father, a senior citizen and a merchant navy professional, was also brought to Juhu Police Station under the pretence that he would be reunited with his family. Ten electronic devices, including seven cell phones, two laptops, and an iPad, were seized from the entire family that day, she says.

By the time the paperwork was completed at the police station, the court had already closed for the day. Dr. Jethwani and her parents were taken to the magistrate’s house, where a transit warrant was issued.

“The magistrate did ask if I was tortured, and when I said, ‘yes’, he simply turned a deaf ear and signed the documents for our arrest and transfer to A.P.,” Dr. Jethwani recalls.

Dr. Jethwani and her parents were taken in separate cars and not allowed to carry anything. “We reached the Ibrahimpatnam Police Station around 9:30 p.m. on February 4. From there, we were taken to the magistrate’s house, where an order for 14 days of remand to the district jail was issued. Everything happened at lightning speed,” she recounts.

“Though we were given food packets and water on the way, we had to relieve ourselves by the roadside behind shrubs and bushes. It was a humiliating experience, especially for my elderly parents,” she says.

Until then, Dr. Jethwani and her parents believed they were falsely accused in a forgery case. However, the police’s real intent became clear when they obtained a special order from the district court, granting them five days of police custody under the pretext of further investigation.

“I understood the true motive behind this arrest when they threatened us of dire consequences if we did not drop the case against the corporate honcho,” says Dr. Jethwani.

Dr. Jethwani and her parents were interrogated separately from 8 a.m. to midnight without a break. “There was no physical torture, but the mental trauma was overwhelming. Even after six months, my elderly parents have not recovered from the shock. The police kept demanding passwords for my devices, which I refused to provide. They even attempted to hack into my devices, as I later found multiple entries in my Google account. But we didn’t give in because we understood their real intent by then,” she says.

Although the 14-day remand period ended, Dr. Jethwani and her parents were granted conditional bail only after 23 days, which required them to remain in Ibrahimpatnam and report daily to sign a register.

Inquiry report revelations

By the time Dr. Jethwanii went public with her story in August this year, there was a change of power in A.P. The new NDA government, led by Telugu Desam Party president Mr. Naidu as the Chief Minister, formed a team to investigate the case.

According to the investigation report, the FIR against Dr. Jethwani and her parents was filed on February 2, 2024, at the Ibrahimpatnam Police Station. However, the report revealed a significant discrepancy—the A.P. police left for Mumbai in the early morning of February 3, after having a preliminary meeting on this issue on January 31 itself.

Senior police officers have pointed out that this appears to have been a meticulously planned operation.

“She [Dr. Jethwani] was no terrorist to be hounded by an operation of such magnitude,” remarked a senior police officer, adding, “A 10-member team had to be flown to Mumbai overnight, led by a DIG-rank IPS officer.”

Dr. Jethwani has graduated with distinction from the prestigious Smt. NHL Municipal Medical College in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Before entering the film industry, she worked at Cooper Hospital in Mumbai.

The senior officer further noted that the entire operation was funded through the Vijayawada police’s Secret Reserve Fund (SRF), raising additional suspicions about the motives behind the case.

DGP Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, revealing the findings of the investigation report, said that Mr. Anjaneyulu summoned Mr. Tata and Mr. Gunni to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on January 31, and they were instructed to arrest Dr. Jethwani, even though no case was registered against her at that time.

The records show that the FIR was officially registered on February 2, 2024, at 6:30 a.m., while instructions had already been passed to Mr. Tata and Mr. Gunni on January 31, 2024—well before the FIR was filed.

This indicates that Mr. Anjaneyulu initiated and advanced the case based on incomplete information, abusing his authority and official position. His actions played a key role in fast-tracking the investigation without adequate scrutiny, indicating a clear misuse of power and connivance, revealed the report.

The report noted that Mr. Tata failed to adequately supervise the investigation. He did not ensure that the complaint was thoroughly examined or that a basic investigation was conducted before issuing arrest instructions. Instead, he gave oral instructions to the officers and arranged air tickets for them to fly to Mumbai. This facilitated and contributed to the illegal arrest of Ms. Kadambari, it said.

Corporate-political nexus

Dr. Jethwani says she first encountered the man who heads a major corporate empire during an IPL match in Dubai in October 2021. Following their meeting, they developed some common business interests together. Over time, he allegedly made sexual advances, leading to a series of meetings that culminated in an alleged sexual assault on January 24, 2022, in Mumbai. She approached the police with her complaint in February 2022, but despite her persistent efforts, no case was registered. It wasn’t until December 13, 2023, that Mumbai officials instructed the police to register a case, which included charges of criminal intimidation, sexual assault, and an attack on modesty.

She says that because of her arrest, she could not attend the court hearing on her case against the corporate bigwig, and the Mumbai court dismissed the case with the comment: “Girl did not appear—wasting court’s time.”

Dr. Jethwani met Vidyasagar, a businessman now in his mid-40s, through a modelling coordinator in Hyderabad in 2009 and in 2013. She says he had proposed a marriage. “But after going through his ex-wife’s divorce papers, I realised that he was a compulsive womaniser, and he had physically and mentally tortured his wife, and he also had about 18 criminal cases pending against him. I had called off the marriage proposal. Since then, he had been after me. Sometimes coming to my home in Mumbai or stalking me,” she alleged.

Dr. Jethwani filed a complaint against Mr. Vidyasagar at Ibrahimpatnam police station on September 13, and cases have been booked against him under various Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections such as 192 211, 218, 220, 354, 467, 420, 469 and section 66 (A) of IT Act. Police arrested Mr. Vidyasagar, the son of a former Zilla Parishad Chairman, at Dehradun on September 23 and sent him to judicial remand.

The police in the remand report named Mr. Vidyasagar as Accused No. 1 and P. Sitharama Anjaneyulu as Accused 2. The place of offence was noted as the Vijayawada Police Commissioner’s office.

Mr. Vidyasagar gave a statement saying that the police officers had colluded with him to forge the fake documents to implicate Dr. Jethwani and planted the document in her handbag during her arrest.

The remand report also stated that Mr. Vidyasagar had said that since he was politically well-connected with the then-ruling YSRCP, the police officers had been obliged to help him out so that he could influence the political bigwigs for their better postings.

However, many TDP, Congress, and Left party leaders rubbished the theory, as Mr. Vidyasagar, who himself had many cases pending against him, did hold that big a clout in political circles, but he could be made a pawn in the entire episode involving corporate-political nexus.

“An inquiry has been ordered, and justice will be done to her [Dr. Jethwani]”N. Chandrababu NaiduChief Minister, Andhra Pradesh

The case has taken a political twist, as the incident happened during the reign of the YSRCP. A.P. Chief Minister Mr. Naidu said that the actor and her family were tortured. “An inquiry has been ordered, and justice will be done to her,” he said.

CPI(M) state secretariat member Ch. Narasinga Rao said that the corporate honcho had a business connection with A.P. and is coming up with a steel plant in one of the districts. This is a case of nexus between politicians and corporates. Unfortunately, A.P. went overboard to gain the corporate honcho’s favour and directed the police to take such an illegal and extra-judicial action.

All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) state secretary D. Rama Devi said the police’s hurried registration of the case, arresting and sending the women to jail, was raising many doubts.

The onus now lies on the police officers accused in the case to explain what led them to take such drastic action against Dr Jethwani and upon whose orders they resort to the arrest and interrogation.

Reputation at stake

If the accused police officers, in the inquiry, point fingers at political leaders at whose behest the operation was carried out, then the YSRCP will have a lot to explain to the common public.

Dr. Jethwani has refrained from naming the corporate honcho, as it was evident that she was under pressure even from the present ruling party, probably due to larger business interests. Police personnel from Mumbai, especially from the Juhu Police Station, who were involved in her arrest, might be questioned if required, say sources..

But she cools it down by saying, “Even if the police personnel who infringed upon my basic Constitutional and fundamental rights are punished, we are close to achieving justice.”

Meanwhile, senior officers say this case tarnished the image of the A.P. police and also badly damaged their morale.

(With inputs from Rajulapudi Srinivas, The Hindu’s Principal Correspondent from Vijayawada)