Actor Richa Chadha moved a defamation suit in the Bombay High Court on Monday against an actor who has accused filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of raping her in 2013, Live Law reported. Chadha said the complainant was trying to unnecessarily “drag her name” in the case and called these alleged attempts “false, frivolous and vexatious”.
Besides the actor, Chadha has also named film critic Kamaal R Khan and television channel ABN Telugu, seeking Rs 1.1 crore in damages for posting libelous content against her with the intention of maligning her reputation.
The complainant has accused Kashyap of raping her seven years ago when she had met him for work. She also claimed that Kashyap had mentioned to her that other actors like Chadha, Huma Qureshi and Mahie Gill had granted him sexual favours to bag film assignments, according to The Indian Express. Kashyap has denied all the allegations and called them “an outright lie”
A single judge bench of Justice Anil K Menon was heard Chadha’s plea on Monday, filed through senior counsel Veerendra Tulzapurkar and advocate Saveena Bedi Sachar, which also sought monetary compensation from the actor. However, when no one appeared for the actor and others, the court asked Chadha to serve fresh personal notice to respondents along with a service through emails.
The High Court will take up the matter on Wednesday.
Chadha’s plea states that ABN Telugu broadcasted and uploaded on YouTube two defamatory videos of an interview with the actor, describing graphic details of the alleged sexual assault. The plea said that Kamaal R Khan, and others named in the suit, shared the link of one of these videos on Twitter.
The plea added that although the complainant and the channel were served a legal notice on September 21, the actor went ahead and gave another interview to journalist Viral Bhayani and also spoke to entertainment website Pinkvilla.com.
Chadha said these “persistent and continuous defamatory acts” of the complainant falsely portrayed her as a person with “loose character and morals willing to compromise herself for self-benefit”.
“The Defendants have jointly attempted to drag the Plaintiff [Chadha] into the alleged claims against a third person, which is not only false, frivolous and vexatious but has also been done with an intent to cause damage to the immense goodwill that the Plaintiff has acquired as and by way of years of hardwork and for the purposes of defaming the Plaintiff’s image and reputation which is very important to the Plaintiff personally and even professionally...The Plaintiff has suffered incalculable loss and damage to her reputation as well as suffered tremendous humiliation and stress.”
— Live Law
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