Apologise or face Rs10-crore defamation suit: Tanushree Dutta's legal notice to Rakhi Sawant

Starlet Rakhi Sawant had courted controversy when she lashed out at actress Tanushree Dutta for accusing Nana Patekar of sexual harassment. The starlet had held a press conference where she slammed Dutta and said the former Miss India was under the influence of drugs. Dutta has now demanded an apology from Sawant, and failure to do so would result in a Rs10-crore defamation suit.

Speaking to Cinestaan.com, Dutta’s advocate Nitin Satpute said, “How could she publicly say stuff like Dutta was taking drugs? We have sent Rakhi Sawant a legal notice for the comments she made against my client at a press conference. We have given her seven days to respond to the notice. She must tender a public apology and should not repeat this. If she doesn’t apologise then we will file a defamation suit for Rs10 crore."

Sawant had backed Nana Patekar and accused Dutta of levelling sexual harassment allegations to seek publicity. Sawant had loosely commented that perhaps Dutta was high on drugs, and had locked herself inside the vanity van for five hours. Sawant went ahead to call Dutta "a psycho one who was in coma for the last 10 years".

Sawant had replaced Dutta for the particular song from Rakesh Sarang’s Horn Ok Pleassss, which remained unreleased. It was during the shooting of the song that Patekar allegedly sexually harassed Dutta in 2008. She spoke up about the abuse this year, kickstarting the #MeToo movement in Indian cinema.