Actress Richa Chadha has reportedly filed a defamation suit against Payal Ghosh and others. Reacting to the development, Payal says she fails to understand why Richa is trying to defame her.

According to reports, Richa on Monday filed a case before Bombay High Court for Rs 1.10 crore against Payal for “tarnishing her reputation” and subjecting her to “immense humiliation, ridicule, unwanted speculation, harassment, harsh public scrutiny and loss of business opportunity and goodwill thereby causing tremendous stress and mental agony”.

Payal, who has accused filmmaker, Anurag Kashyap of sexual harassment, told IANS: “This is completely a false accusation. I don’t understand what I have to do with this case. Why is she trying to defame me? She should instead ask Mr Kashyap why he took her name.”

“I don’t know her personally. We will go to court and clarify. I have only said what Mr Kashyap told me. It is not me who has taken names,” Payal said.

Last month, Payal had claimed that Kashyap tried to molest her in the past. She said in order to convince her, Anurag said that “all the actresses he has worked with are just a call away” — indicating that these actresses, including Richa, have provided sexual favours to Kashyap.

According to reports, no one appeared on behalf of Payal and others, and the court has asked Richa to serve fresh personal notice to the respondents along with a service through emails. The court adjourned the case till October 7.

Payal’s advocate Nitin Satpute tweeted on Tuesday: “It’s false to say that advocate failed to appear in court as no notice was served that time even on WhatsApp as claimed. Notice served on 5/6/2020 at Payal Ghosh residence, now Will appears in court on 7th Oct.”

Payal said she won’t be able to make it as she is not in Mumbai.