August 19, 2020: The National Commission for Women (NCW) said actors Mouni Roy and Urvashi Rautela did not appear in the online hearing of a complaint against promoter of IMG ventures Sunny Verma in a sexual assault case. "@NCWIndia conducted an online hearing today & recorded statements of witnesses on a complaint against Sunny Verma, Promoter of IMG ventures. However, @Roymouni & @UrvashiRautela did not attend the scheduled hearing despite several intimations sent from our end," NCW tweeted. "The Commission has recorded all the statements and will be preparing its report based on our findings," it added.

Earlier, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said that he appeared before the NCW in the context of the complaint against Sunny Verma. The director issued an official statement on Tuesday through his production company Vishesh Films and the statement was also shared by NCW's official Twitter handle. Bhatt clarified that he has no "association with IMG Ventures, Sunny Verma, and Mr and Miss Glamour 2020" and that his name and credibility should not be misused for "promotion of the event to lure participation of others."

Besides Bhatt, the National Commission for Women had issued notice to actor Urvashi Rautela, Esha Gupta, Mouni Roy, actor-model Prince Narula, and TV personality Rannvijay Singha for the recording of witness statements on a complaint against Verma for allegedly blackmailing and sexually assaulting a number of girls on the pretext of giving them modelling careers.