LUCKNOW: The court of special chief judicial magistrate (customs) on Wednesday issued summons to Netflix director Abhishek Nag, documentary director Nick Read and producer Reva Sharma for prima facie defaming Sahara India and its chairman Subrata Roy in a documentary series ‘Bad Boys Billionaires India’ released on the OTT platform.
The judge, Sunil Kumar, directed the accused to appear before the court on November 15 to stand trial for committing offences under Sections 500, 501 and 502 of the IPC. The court passed the order on a complaint moved by Sahara India and its employees.
“From the perusal of complaint and statements of witnesses Ghulam Zeeshan and Bhuvnesh Mani Tripathi, offences of defamation are prima facie made out against the three accused,” the court observed in its order.
The complainant alleged that the accused released a documentary series on October 5, 2020, which tarnished the image of Sahara group and its chief in most defamatory manner.
The witnesses said the documentary was made only to gain commercial benefit, and hence, Netflix spiced up the documentary portraying Subrata Roy and Sahara India in a bad light, which is objectionable and defamatory.
After considering the entire material on record, the court found that the accused persons have prima facie committed offences of defamation and should be summoned to face trial.
