Akshay Kumar serves INR 5 billion defamation notice to YouTuber

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has served a defamation notice to a YouTuber from Bihar, seeking 5 billion (INR 500 crore) in damages for making “false and baseless allegations” against him in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, reported the Hindustan Times.

In the legal notice sent through a law firm on November 17, Kumar claimed that Rashid Siddiquee, in his YouTube channel FF News, has uploaded several defamatory, libelous and derogatory videos against him.

“Our client (Kumar) states that because of your (Siddiquee’s) scandalous, defamatory and derogatory videos, he has suffered mental trauma, agony and huge loss, including loss of reputation and goodwill, which our client quantifies at INR500 crore,” the notice said.

“The said videos make several false and baseless allegations against our client (Kumar), claiming that he helped (actor) Rhea Chakraborty abscond to Canada, had secret meetings with (Maharashtra minister) Aaditya Thackeray and the Mumbai police Commissioner to discuss the death case of Sushant Singh Rajput and so on,” it said.

“These videos are false, baseless, and defamatory and have been intentionally published to mislead the public,” the law firm added in the notice. “Our client is indignant and absolutely outraged at the public embarrassment, discomfort and anxiety he had to face because of these false, scandalous and derogatory videos,” the notice continued.

The actor has asked Siddiquee to publish an unconditional apology, take down all the videos where references have been made regarding him and desist from uploading such clips in the future. The notice assures that if Siddiquee fails to respond within a period of three days, the actor would initiate legal proceedings against him.

The Mumbai Police have separately filed a case against Siddiquee on charges of defamation, public mischief and intentional insult for his posts against the city police, Maharashtra government and minister Aaditya Thackeray.

Rajput was found dead in his suburban Bandra apartment on June 14. Chakraborty, the late actor’s girlfriend, was arrested by the NCB in a drug case related to Rajput’s death. She is now out on bail.

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