Hrithik Roshan broke his silence on his alleged affair with Kangana Ranaut and their ongoing legal battle on Thursday.
The two went to war earlier this week after they sent each other legal notices with accusations of stalking, defamation, blackmail and mental illness.
The "Bang Bang" actor issued a statement to clarify that an email address being used by an impostor to pretend to be the actor and communicate with his fans, did not belong to him and said the email address was the root of the matter.
"Anything private that becomes public gives rise to speculation and unnecessary controversies simply because the general public are not privy to the whole truth," Roshan said in the statement, which does not include the actress' name. "Out of respect for everyone involved, I followed the legal path to resolve the matter in question so as to keep it private. It was a breach of ethics to reveal the contents of a private legal notice."
"The crux of the matter is that the mail id hroshan@email.com does NOT belong to me. I had filed a complaint in this regard with Mumbai Cyber Crime cell on 12 December, 2014 when I learnt of this impersonator communicating with said person," he continued. "I have absolutely NO CONNECTION with this ID. The entire issue stems from a case of identity theft which has carried over to me. My complaint was reactivated on March 5, 2016 and the crime unit has made headway in tracking this person down. Once that is done, the matter can be laid to rest."
"And finally, I believe that mental health is a grave and crucial issue which merits serious discussion. I would never address it flippantly nor use it as a personal attack. Any allegation to the contrary is a misrepresentation of facts. I was requested to keep silent and I did so for 2 years," he added.
Ranaut's lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee issued a statement in response, claiming that Roshan was trying to seek sympathy after threatening his client.
"Hrithik's statements made to the media are nothing but efforts to gain public sympathy," Siddiquee said in his statement. "He cannot wash his hands off the matter now after having criminally threatened my client and having intimidated her, without any provocation. He also cannot deny the fact my client never named him anywhere and it was he himself who claimed to be "Silly Ex" in his notice."
"He needs to immediately realise that my client Kangana Ranaut does not need Hrithik Roshan's name to garner publicity or attention, as she is a renowned public figure herself," he continued.
Siddiquee called the 43-year-old actor a liar for saying that he does not know Ranaut socially.
"He specifically claimed he does not know my client socially at all. If that were the truth, then how was he attending my client's private birthday party with his entire family and my client was attending his party besides his sister's and his father's birthday party as well. There is enough proof on public platform, which sufficiently proves that Hrithik Roshan is lying," he added.
