#MeToo Movement: Vikas Bahl’s Accuser Requests Court to Drop Her Name From the Filmmaker’s Defamation Suit

In India's #MeToo movement, one of the most prominent name, amongst all, which has surfaced as an alleged sexual harasser is that of Vikas Bahl. The director has the movie Queen to his credit. The movie was all pro for women empowerment. The director has been accused by one of the former employees of his production house, Phantom Films,  of sexually assaulting her. Right before a detailed report about this case was published by HuffPost, owners of the production house, including Madhu Mantenna, Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, dissolved it. Vikramaditya and Kashyap even went on to publicly make statements against Vikas. #MeToo in Bollywood: Vikas Bahl Broke Down and Promised to Go to Rehabilitation Says Anurag Kashyap's Lawyer.

Following this, Vikas filed a defamation case against the two friends-turned-foes and even the woman who levelled the accusations. To be noted, that the woman bowed out of taking a legal route against Vikas. Now, that you are up to speed, there is a new update in the case.

As per a report by Pinkvilla, the woman has requested the court not drop her name from the defamation case filed by Vikas. She told the court, ""I do not wish to relive any further what has transpired and I request that my presence in this proceedings be dispensed with and I dropped as a party. The absence of a written complaint or FIR does not and cannot take away from the truth of my statements. Why I have not made a police complaint is plain to see if one considers how formal process has failed to achieve any measure of accountability and lead only to the further victimisation of sexual assault survivors."

We are waiting to see how this case in the #MeToo movement will tread forward.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 28, 2018 04:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).