Incarcerated alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar has sent a legal notice to TV serial actor Chahatt Khanna seeking Rs 100 crore for causing "damage" and "irreplaceable harm" to his reputation with her allegations. The notice comes after Chahatt, in an interview with a national daily, claimed that she was trapped in visiting him in Tihar jail, where he went down on his knees before her and proposed marriage. When she told him that she is already married and has two kids, she was told that her husband was not the right man for her.
Chahatt also said that it was only after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned her in the alleged extortion case involving him - a little more than a year ago - that she learnt that Chandrashekhar is not former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's nephew.
She had also testified before Patiala House Court on January 3 in connection with the extortion case of Chandrashekhar. The legal notice sent to her by lawyer Anant Malik on behalf of Chandrashekhar, says: "At the outset it is being made clear that the present notice is not with respect to the statements given by you to the investigating agencies and is being issued only towards the statements given by you to various media houses/social media platforms/pages.
"In your interview, you (Khanna) have falsely and wrongfully claimed that you were forced to enter Tihar Jail to meet our client wherein he 'went down on one knee' to propose to you.
"It is your very own statement, and which is on record that you accompanied one Ms. Angel in May 2018 and travelled with her to Delhi to meet our client who was simply going to finance your projects, films, shows etc. in order to escalate your career in the Indian Film Industry."
The notice went on to say: "Even if you were forced to meet our client, there must be a very good reason for you to keep this piece of information to yourself for almost five years now.... you have deliberately engaged in vicious falsehood and lies, designed to knowingly cause harm to the reputation and goodwill of our client just to gain some publicity and to be relevant on the various social media platforms.
"Your false and malicious statements being per se defamatory and having caused great mental agony... Our client is entitled to compensation for the anguish, anxiety and damage caused by your unguided acts and hence you are called upon to pay a sum of Rs 100 crores ..."
On February 2, Chandrashekhar released a letter to media in which he has claimed that he had never proposed to Chahatt, when she had come to meet him in Tihar Jail. In the letter, Chandrashekhar, who is in the capital's Mandoli jail, said that she came for a business meeting for some movie production offer, which is also recorded in her statement to the ED.
"I have no interest to date or be with women, who are already married or have children. I am not desperate like these Gold Diggers like Chahatt. My association with Chahatt, Nikki has been only for professional reasons, for which the meetings happened, and advance was paid," he had said in his letter.
Investigations are underwat in a money laundering case involving Chandrashekhar and Bollywood actors, including Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi, who have also been questioned in relation with the case.
(With IANS inputs)
