Actor Richa Chadha moved a defamation suit on Monday in the Bombay High Court against actor, who had accused filmmaker Anurag Kashyap of sexual misconduct, as well as film critic Kamaal R Khan, a news channel and others.
The actor Payal Ghosh had alleged that Kashyap had “forced himself” on her when she had met him for work. She also claimed that Kashyap had mentioned to her that other actors like Richa Chadha, Huma Qureshi and Mahie Gill had granted him sexual favours to bag film assignments.
A single judge bench of Justice Anil K Menon was hearing Richa Chadha’s application of defamation filed through senior counsel Veerendra Tulzapurkar and advocate Saveena Bedi Sachar which also sought monetary compensation from the actor.
However, as no one appeared for the actor and others, the court asked Richa Chadha to serve fresh personal notice to respondents along with a service through emails in this case of defamation . Seeking affidavit of notice from Richa Chadha by October 6, the court adjourned the case till October 7.
Although legal notice of defamation was served upon Payal Ghosh and ABN Telugu on September 21, Ghosh gave another interview to Journalist, Viral Bhayani and an interview to Pinkvilla.com.
The plaint by Richa Chadha states-
“The Defendants have jointly attempted to drag the Plaintiff 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 irreparable loss to the Plaintiff has been and is continuous in terms of the Plaintiff’s defamation and damage to the Plaintiff’s reputation and goodwill for the manifestly defamatory and/or libelous content posted and/or broadcasted by the Defendants Jointly and Severally, without due care and/or sufficient reason to believe that it is true and has subjected the Plaintiff to immense humiliation and ridicule. The Plaintiff has suffered incalculable loss and damage to her reputation as well as suffered tremendous humiliation and stress.
Hence the present Suit has been filed. against the Defendants herein for seeking appropriate reliefs including injunction and/or damages for the loss caused to the Plaintiff due to the persistent and continuous defamatory acts of the Defendants including interalia falsely portraying the Plaintiff as a person with loose character and morals willing to compromise herself for self-benefit.”
The plaintiff, Richa Chadha has also sought temporary mandatory injunction against the defendants directing them to withdraw from their website/channel/social media any defamatory statements/videos against her as defamation and render an apology as well.
Payal Ghosh has alleged that filmmaker Anurag Kashyap raped her in 2013 and an FIR was registered against him at Versova police station under Sections 376 (punishment for rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code.
