Chhota Rajan moves HC, seeks to stop release of Netflix series ‘Scoop’

In his suit, Rajan has objected to his picture and voice being used by the filmmaker. He learnt about it from his wife after she saw the trailer of the series.

Gangster Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje aka Chhota Rajan has approached the Bombay high court (HC) against filmmaker Hansal Mehta and owners of Matchbox Shots LLP, who have produced the web series ‘Scoop,’ slated to drop on the OTT platform Netflix on Friday.

The Netflix series is based on the story of journalist Jigna Vora who was accused of murdering a fellow journalist Jyotirmoy Dey (J Dey). Dey was killed near his residence in Powai on July 11, 2011. The series is inspired by Vora’s biographical book ‘Behind the Bars In Byculla: My Days in Prison’. (HT PHOTO)

In his suit, Rajan has objected to his picture and voice being used by the filmmaker. He learnt about it from his wife after she saw the trailer of the series. This, according to Rajan, was an infringement of his rights, as the filmmaker did not seek his permission. Therefore, he has said that the producers “should be permanently restrained from releasing the series”. He has also sought removal of the trailer.

Rajan filed the suit through advocate Akash Pandey, on Thursday, which is likely to be heard by the vacation bench of the HC on Friday.

The Netflix series is based on the story of journalist Jigna Vora who was accused of murdering a fellow journalist Jyotirmoy Dey (J Dey). Dey was killed near his residence in Powai on July 11, 2011. The series is inspired by Vora’s biographical book ‘Behind the Bars In Byculla: My Days in Prison’.

Referring to the trailer of the series, which was released on May 15, the plea stated that Rajan’s wife came across two interviews of Mehta on various television networks on May 22 and 25 after which she alerted him about the series. “The plaintiff’s wife is disturbed and affected by the repeated and widespread gossip of the web series,” said the plea, underscoring that it was causing a fear of threat to life to the plaintiff and other family members.

The interim application stated that making any “direct or indirect reference to the plaintiff without receiving prior consent amounts to infringement of his rights, which could be passed on as defamation as well.”

The plea stated that although he and nine others were convicted for the murder of Dey in 2011, he had filed an appeal against the special CBI court order of 2019 before the high court, the same year, which is yet to be decided.

Rajan has stated that as the appeal was pending, the producers of the series were maligning his image in public by linking him to a concocted storyline, with an intention to commercially benefit from it. This, the plea claimed, amounted to defamation.

It added that if the series was allowed to be aired his fundamental rights to privacy will be infringed as nearly 200 million subscribers of Netflix will view the series and will be prejudiced against him and hence, the court should issue a permanent injunction against the release of the series.