New Delhi, July 20 A Delhi court on Saturday recorded the statement of Dr Lalit Bhasin, an independent director on the board of Godfrey Phillips India Ltd (GPI), in a defamation suit filed against Samir Modi for putting out in the media a "false story" of orchestration of an assault.
Judge Shriya Agarwal of Saket Court was hearing the defamation suits filed by the four GPI directors against the "scurrilous, false and defamatory statements" of Samir Modi, who is an executive director of GPI.
As per the complainants, in an interview given to a media outlet on June 1, Samir Modi "concocted a patently false story about an allegedly broken index finger resulting from a premeditated attack with the intention to kill by the members of the Board of GPI".
The complaint added that "there was no attack whatsoever" on Samir Modi and the CCTV footage and the personal affidavits of several eyewitnesses to the incident will establish that there is not an iota of truth in the story sought to be put out by him.
It said that on May 30, the day when Samir Modi "manufactured a story of an assault", he actively participated in the meetings, including an Audit Committee meeting which he was neither entitled nor invited to attend, signed multiple papers and neither spoke of any grievous injury nor displayed any physical discomfort.
"The accused has deliberately made false and scurrilous statements to put out a concocted narrative with the intention of harming the good reputation and high repute of the complainant," the complaint filed before the court said.
Directors Atul Kumar Gupta, Bina Modi, Lalit Bhasin and Nirmala Bagri requested the court to take cognisance of their distinct complaints and issue summons to the accused, try and punish him for the offence of defamation punishable under the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
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