#MeToo: Filmmaker demands Vinod Dua's resignation to allow fair investigation

Filmmaker Nishtha Jain, who has accused Vinod Dua – a senior journalist and comedian Mallika Dua's father – of sexually assaulting her in 1989, is not happy with the progress in deliberation by the news website The Wire on the matter.

After going through Jain's Facebook post, The Wire had issued a statement saying that their Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) had taken note of her allegations and are awaiting for the outcome of their deliberation about the incident.

However, Jain, in a series of tweets, has stated that there was no progress even after 24 hours and said that the publication has not contacted her yet about her allegations against their consulting editor Vinod Dua.

She further demanded the publication to ask Vinod Dua to resign from his position to allow fair investigation of the matter.

"There has been no reporting on The Wire about my allegations against their consulting editor Vinod Dua even after 24 hours. As an avid reader of The Wire which is among the few publications that has dared to report fairly in the days of paid media.

"I sincerely hope that they will be able to buck up enough courage to stand by the side of the truth, by the sides of women at this historic moment of MeToo India.

"In the statement that The Wire published yesterday, they have said that their ICC has taken notice of the matter. But I have not been contacted as yet. And how can ICC carry out objective investigation with Vinod Dua still a part of the organisation?

"I demand that Vinod Dua be asked to resign so as to iallow full and fair investigation of the matter," she said. 

Jain, on Sunday, revealed that she was humiliated at the hands of Vinod Dua during a job interview in June, 1989. In her Facebook post, she described how Vinod Dua used to keep a track of her whereabouts and would show up unexpectedly at her office's parking area. Once when Vinod Dua asked her to come inside the car, Nishtha assumed he was going to apologise for his behaviour but the journalist ended up "slobbering" all over her face. She managed to escape at that time.

She concluded her ordeal saying, "Sorry, Malika Dua, your father is also one who belongs to the hall of shame."