Bihar royal family slap Rs.1 crore suit on Chetan Bhagat

Famous author Chetan Bhagat‘s, many books have been made into Bollywood films. The author is also known as the “the voice of Indian youth”. His latest book ‘Half Girlfriend’ has been embroiled in a legal controversy. Chetan has been slapped with Rs. 1 crore defamation suit by a Bihar royal family. The scion of the princely state of Dumraon, Chandra Vijay Singh has filed the case in the Delhi High Court for “express and implied references” to his family in Bhagat’s latest book ‘Half Girlfriend’ that are “false and derogatory in nature”. Rupa publications, too has been named as a respondent in the defamation suit.

Chandra Vijay Singh is the eldest son of Maharaja Bahadur Kamal Singh, a two-term Lok Sabha MP and the last ruler of Dumraon, claims that the novel defames his family by suggesting that the men of the family gamble excessively and are alcoholics.

Singh’s said that even after sending a legal notice in November and then in December last year to both Bhagat and Rupa Publications, no definite action had been taken by them. Singh also added that although Bhagat expressed regret and extended friendship to the family at one point in November, he later mocked them on Twitter.

Chetan Bhagat on his part claims that there was some “misunderstanding” as his book is a work of fiction. He said, “Somebody in Bihar feels they belong to the family, which is fictionally represented in the book. But it is fiction. So the question of defamation does not arise and I don’t know these people. I don’t even know they existed.”