New Delhi: Congress MP Govinda has denied charges of links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
He has trashed the video footage aired by a local TV channel, showing him in Dawood Ibrahim's company, as political conspiracy.
Govinda said that he had been a victim of the underworld. He had performed in Dubai under pressure and had been cleared by the CBI, CID and police in 1989, he claims.
Dawood, India's most wanted man has also been named on the US global terrorist list linking him to Al-Qaeda.
He is wanted for his role in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.
Dawood fled the country after the blasts and is now operating from Karachi in Pakistan.
The video footage aired by the TV channel on Wednesday showed Govinda hugging gangster Chhota Rajan, once a close aide of Dawood, at a function in Dubai.
"A chance meeting does not mean having links," Govinda says.
"I am disturbed myself. An artist is just picked up and taken to perform for someone under pressure and then one is not even given money."
Denying that he had any links with Dawood, he claimed that the footage is a conspiracy because he is making a comeback to Bollywood.
Govinda says that after the meeting he never visited Middle East.
However, he says he will not take any action on the issue.
D-Constructing the Truth
The TV channel claimed it was the first ever video of Govinda with Dawood Ibrahim, but it wasn't clear when or where the footage was shot.
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who was in the channel's studio when the footage was aired, said the pictures may have been shot before 1993 as Chhota Rajan and Dawood are shown together.
The two dons have since parted ways.
The footage also showed Dawood's brothers, Noora and Anis Ibrahim, Chotta Shakeel and Abu Salem at the function.
Congress was quick to defend Govinda on the issue. Party spokesperson Anand Sharma said the footage was almost a decade-and-half old, shot when Govinda had not even entered politics.
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