BBC comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli arrested for committing 'non-recent' sexual offences

BBC comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli was arrested on Wednesday over charges of committing 'non-recent' sexual offences. the 54-year-old, who is the father of two children andsingle after getting a divorce from Shamila Singh in 2009, was later released from custody. He will be appearing in court at a later date.

Kohli is a former Celebrity MasterChef and Celebrity Big Brother contestant and has presented various programmes for the BBC.

The arrest comes after various women made allegations of sexual harassment against Kohli, which was reported last month in The Times.

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"A 54-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with allegations of non-recent sexual offences. He has been released on an undertaking to appear in court at a later date. A report of the circumstances has been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal," said a Police Scotland spokesperson.

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Kohli was runner-up in Celebrity MasterChef's 2006 series, as well as a housemate in 2018's Celebrity Big Brother, which also featured Coronation Street actor Ryan Thomas, former Arsenal midfielder Jermaine Pennant, and former Cheers actress Kirstie Alley.

Before entering the house, Kohli said: "It's better to have loved and lost than to have never gone into the Celebrity Big Brother house at all."

Kohli's India connect

His parents shifted to the UK from India in the early 1960s and settled in Londonwhere Kohli was born in 1969. His younger brother Sanjeev, 51, is a famous actor and writer who played the role of shopkeeper Navid in BBC Scotland's Still Game. Meanwhile, his older brother Raj works as a high-ranking Sikh officer in the Metropolitan Police. In 1974, Hardeep Singh Kohli shifted to Scotland when he was just four years old.

His mother Kuldip is a social worker and his father Parduman worked first as a teacher and then became a landlord in Bishopbriggs, northern Glasgow.

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In 2008, Kohli was on the judging panel of the Man Booker Prize that snubbed Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence. "I think Rushdie's writing is patchy, to be honest. He has written some good books and some not-so-good books. There is no doubting the man's massive intellect. But I have never known a book split the public so much as Midnight's Children. People will secretly confess to not finishing. Others will secretly confess to hating it. For others, it is the one book they would take to their grave," he said.

The same year,he published his own book on food and travel in India, which was titled Indian Takeaway: One Man's Attempt to Cook His Way Home.

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