#MeToo: Director Vikas Bahl Files 10 Cr Defamation Suit Against Anurag Kashyap & Others; Bombay HC Adds Alleged Victim As Party [Read Order]

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed Vikas Bahl, a film director accused of sexual assault by a former employee of Phantom Films, to add the alleged victim as a party to the suit.

Justice SJ Kathawalla will hear the alleged victim on October 19 in-chamber. The court directed the respondents Anurag Kashyap and Vikram Motwane also to remain present during the hearing on Friday.

Although statements made by actress Kangana Ranaut, who worked with Bahl for movie Queen, have been cited in the suit, she has not been made a party in the case. Media houses that published the allegations made against Bahl have been made a party to the said suit. Editors of Deccan Chronicle, Economic Times and Huffington Post have been made respondents.

Advocates Sharan Jagtiani, Abhinav Chandrachud, Hitesh Jain and Subhash Jadhav appeared on behalf of the plaintiff. They submitted that there were text messages exchanged between Motwane and the alleged victim after the assault allegations were made, however, there was no mention of the said incident in these messages.

Ashish Pyasi, Pragya Khaitan and Vijay Hiremath were representing the various media houses made respondents in the case.

Senior Advocate Venkatesh Dhond appeared on behalf of Motwane and Kashyap. He argued that the precise reason for the #MeToo movement is that people are tired of a victim’s allegations being trivialized. He said texts exchanges between the alleged victim and his client were professional in nature and had nothing to do with the allegations.

Dhond also questioned why the victim was not made a party in the case after which the court directed Bahl to make her a party.