TOKYO -- Former Jungle Pocket comedy trio member Shinji Saito was on March 26 indicted for alleged penetrative sexual assault and indecent acts without consent.

The accusations include sexual assault on a woman in her 20s last July while they were in a staff vehicle on location for a TV shoot in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. The Metropolitan Police Department had sent papers on him to prosecutors in October 2024.

Saito's former agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., last September announced that the entertainer's activities would be suspended, and later terminated his contract.

(Japanese original by Kumiko Yasumoto, Tokyo City News Department)