Actor Richa Chadha Files Defamation Suit In Bombay HC Against Payal Ghosh Seeking ₹1.1 Crore Damages

On Monday, the matter came up before Justice AK Menon through video conferencing and Senior Advocate Dr.Virendra Tulzpurkar appeared on behalf of the plaintiff along with Advocates Saveena Bedi Sachar and Sumitra Radhika.

Dr.Tulzapurkar submitted that defendants have been served with the notice. However, none appeared on behalf of the defendants and therefore the matter was adjourned for October 7. Court directed the plaintiff to serve fresh notices upon the defendants and file an affidavit of service on October 6.

According to the plaintiff, ABN Telugu (Defendant No.2) broadcasted and uploaded on their official Youtube channel, two defamatory videos of their interview with Payal Ghosh describing graphic details about Anurag Kashyap's alleged sexual assault of Ghosh back in 2013. Moreover, all the defendants including Kamaal R Khan (Defendant No.3) shared the link of one of the alleged defamatory videos on Twitter.

Although legal notice 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 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 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 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.

On October 1, Anurag Kashyap appeared before the Versova police station after being summoned and vehemently denied all allegations made against him. He also provided the police with evidence to show that he was not in the country when Ghosh alleged the incident happened in 2013.