Sahara also filed a civil suit in Kolkata against Netflix claiming Rs. 500 crore damages

LUCKNOW, Oct 16 (The CONNECT) - The Special Chief Judicial Magistrate of Lucknow has issued summons to Abhishek Nag – Director Netflix India LLP, Documentary Director Nick Read, and Reva Sharma - Producer Netflix, directing them to appear before the Court on November 15 in connection with a criminal complaint filed by Sahara against the documentary "Bad Boy Billionaires" featuring Subrata Roy.

The accused will be tried under section 500, 501 and 502 of Indian Penal Code.

Before issuing the process, the Court took cognizance of the offences committed by the accused persons and recorded statements of complainant and their witnesses and after being satisfied prima facie with the evidence, proceeded further to issue summons for trial of the accused persons, for the offences allegedly committed by the accused.

Netflix – an OTT platform made and telecast a documentary series – titled as "Bad Boy Billionaires'' on 05.10.2020, on the Life and growth of Sahara Group Chairman Shri Subrata Roy Sahara along with Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. 

“Netflix sought to draw Subrata Roy’s comparison with Mallya and Modi,” the petitioners said in their recorded statements to the Court. This comparison was unacceptable because Mallya and Modi deserted the country, the petitioners pointed out.

Sahara has also filed a civil suit against Netflix with a claim to recover Rs. 500 crores “for the time being”, in the Competent Court at Alipore, Kolkata. The Court has already issued summons to the accused for their appearance and submitting their version.

Earlier Sahara has strongly reacted on the Netflix series – ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ and said it is completely baseless and is way beyond the facts. Netflix have created an “ill-conceived, spiced up commercial film full of sensationalism” with the title ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ at the cost of the image of Sahara Group which is unacceptable and highly objectionable. Sahara said Netflix telecast the documentary just to gain commercial benefits

“A bare look of the documentary indicates that in their lust of making the documentary spicier and rhetoric, all the accused have wilfully connived and attempted to portray the Chairman of Sahara Group in bad taste, without their being any credible material evidence against him,” Sahara said.