Chhota Rajan files a lawsuit against Netflix series ‘Scoop’

Gangster Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan has filed a complaint with the Bombay High Court (HC) against filmmaker Hansal Mehta and the owners of Matchbox Shots LLP, who produced the web series Scoop,’ which is set to premiere on Netflix on Friday.

Chhota Rajan in his lawsuit:

Rajan has objected to the director using his image and voice in his suit. He learned about it via his wife when she saw the series trailer. Rajan said this infringed his rights because the director did not obtain his permission. 

As a result, he has stated that the creators “should be permanently barred from releasing the series.” He has also requested that the caravan be removed.

Netflix series the ‘Scoop.’

Rajan filed the complaint on Thursday through counsel Akash Pandey, and it is expected to be considered by the HC’s holiday bench on Friday.

The Netflix series is based on the incident of Jigna Vora, a journalist accused of murdering another journalist, Jyotirmoy Dey (J Dey). 

On July 11, 2011, Dey was assassinated near his home in Powai. Vora’s autobiographical book ‘Behind the Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison’ inspired the series.

Referring to the series’ trailer, released on May 15, the plea stated that Rajan’s wife saw two interviews with Mehta on various television networks on May 22 and 25, after which she informed him about the series. 

“The plaintiff’s wife is disturbed and affected by the repeated and widespread gossip of the web series,” the plea stated, emphasising that it was leading the plaintiff and other family members to fear for their lives.

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

Although he and nine others were convicted of Dey’s murder in 2011, the plea indicated that he had filed a lawsuit against the special CBI court order of 2019 before the high court the same year, which is still pending.

Rajan has said that while the appeal was pending, the series’ producers were slandering his reputation in public by tying him to a fabricated tale intending to profit monetarily from it. According to the plea, this amounted to slander.

It went on to state that if the series was allowed to show, his fundamental privacy rights would be violated because almost 200 million Netflix users would watch it and be biased against him, and that the court should issue a permanent injunction to prevent the series from airing.

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