Actor Richa Chadha has filed a defamation case against actors Payal Ghosh and Kamaal R Khan before the Bombay High Court for maligning her in their statements on Ghosh’s allegation of sexual misconduct against director Anurag Kashyap, Mumbai Mirror reported on Tuesday. In her lawsuit, the actor is seeking Rs 1.10 crore in damages.
In September, Ghosh accused Kashyap of sexual assault and alleged that he had “forced himself” on her when she met him for work. She claimed that he had mentioned actors like Richa Chadha, Huma Qureshi and Mahie Gill had granted him sexual favours in return for film assignments.
The lawsuit also extends to a news channel for making defamatory remarks about her, as per the report. After Ghosh made the allegations on September 19, Chadha’s legal team sent a notice on September 21.
Khan’s name found mention in the suit, which alleged that the actor posted the defamatory interviews on social media, and followed it up with tweets which further maligned her.
According to Chadha, Ghosh’s comments were “evil and mysogynistic” and were directed towards tarnishing her hard-earned reputation, with the intent of gaining publicity. “No woman should misuse her liberties to harass other women with unsubstantiated and non-existent, false and baseless allegations,” Chadha had written in her statement.
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Filed through senior counsel Veerendra Tulzapurkar and advocate Saveena Bedi Sachar, the lawsuit seeks “appropriate legal action”. She said that the remarks “subjected her to immense humiliation, ridicule, unwanted speculation, harassment, harsh public scrutiny and loss of business opportunities and goodwill thereby causing tremendous stress and mental agony.”
According to The Indian Express, neither of the parties turned up for the hearing. However, the court has asked Chadha to serve fresh notices to the respective actors with the next hearing for the case deferred till October 7.