Nora Fatehi and Jacqueline Fernandez are in for a big court battle emanating from a defamation suit. This follows the 200 crore extortion case involving conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, that led Nora to file a defamation lawsuit against Jacqueline Fernandez and 15 media outlets. Fernandez on the other hand is not in the mood to let it go without a fight, her lawyer is all set to counter it with tenacity.
In fact, Fernandez’s attorney Prashant Patil made it amply clear that they are prepared to engage in a vigorous legal battle and even have plans to file a countersuit.
According to reports, Nora Fatehi initiated the lawsuit over a written declaration made by Fernandez before the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) court. She says “falsely being implicated by the ED while celebs such as Nora Fatehi, who had also received gifts from conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, had been made witness”.
“It has started to become evident that the aforementioned rivals being unable to compete with the Complainant fairly in the industry have started to try and tarnish her reputation which would cause her loss of work,”
Nora Fatehi claims defamatory remarks, conspiracy
Nora Fatehi has claimed in the suit, adding, “It should be reiterated that these defamatory remarks were made by the Accused No. 1 initially which was further carried forward and circulated by the other accused persons, all of whom were acting in connivance with each other and a conspiracy by the Accused No. l to ensure the financial, social, and personal downfall of the Complainant was batched, and enacted by the said actions.”
Now, Fernandez’s lawyer has reacted to the reports, revealing he is yet to get an official confirmation about the suit.
“Right now, Jacqueline will not react to it as of now because the court has not taken cognizance of that suit yet. It is only Nora, or somebody, who has leaked the news into the media. Let the court take cognizance, if they do, we will definitely go for quashing it. And once Nora steps into the box, we will definitely conduct cross examination,” Patil tells us.
According to him, the development of the defamation suit can be divided into three parts for understanding.
“First, where did this come from? Fernandez has replied in the court to the higher authority where there was me, ED and the authority. And these proceedings are not made in the public domain. If that is not made in the public domain, it is not defamation… During the course of arguments, whatever is said, cannot be raised to defamation and can’t be put in public domain. If certain media agencies have pulled out her responses and circulated, it is for the media agencies to answer,” he says.
Patil continues, “ Can a public statement amount to defamation, the answer is no. Third, Nora has to come to the court and step into the box, then she will be subjected to cross examination by me. She will also have to answer”.
However, he is waiting for legal communication to come his way, as he says, “I have not got any official copy out of the courtroom yet, whatever I’ve gotten is only from the media. Even the court can also reject the notice… It is for the court to decide. It is premature at this stage. But if she has actually done it, we will deal with it very strongly. And once Jacqueline is out of it, then, we will build a counter suit of defamation”.
On Fatehi’s claim that Jacqueline dragged her name, Patil shares, “That is very unfortunate because Jacqueline has utmost respect for Nora to begin with. She has not consciously given any statement, forget about Nora, about anything for that matter. She has consciously stayed away from making any kind of a statement”.
“If something like this comes up in the media circle, it will be dealt with legally. That being said, we will fight it very aggressively. If Jacqueline is dragged to the court, we are ready to fight it aggressively in the court,” he wraps up.