Popular singer Mika Singh, against whom a Rs 50 lakh defamation suit has been filed for allegedly slapping a doctor and tarnishing his image at a function here, today told a Delhi court that the plea was to harass and humiliate him.
In his written statement filed before Additional District Judge Rajrani, Mika said the suit was devoid of merits and it should be dismissed with exemplary cost as the intention was to extort money from the music composer and to pressurize him for achieving ulterior motives of the doctor.
The court asked doctor Srikanth's advocates Rajesh Kumar and Ahmad Shahrooz, to file rejoinder to Mika's statement and and for admission and denial of documents and put up the matter for August 8.
Amrik Singh alias Mika was earlier summoned in the defamation suit filed by Srikanth, an ophthalmologist at Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital here, alleging that the singer had slapped him during a live concert, which was coordinated by the Delhi Ophthalmological Society as part of its three-day conference.
Mika, in his statement, said the contents of the suit are based on media reports and the media houses have filed their own version and their act cannot be attributed to him.
He denied that he deliberately levelled false allegations against the doctor. He also alleged that a case of sexual harassment and uttering words with an intent to outrage modesty of woman has been lodged against the doctor.
"It is wrong and denied that the plaintiff (doctor) was not misbehaving with anyone and that there arose any occasion for him to reason with the defendant (Mika) asking him to behave properly with him.
"It is also wrong and denied that ever or on realising that the plaintiff did not pay heed to his dictatorship and unparliamentary and abusive language, the defendant got more furious and angry and directed his bouncers to drag the plaintiff to the stage, as no such incident took place," Mika said and also denied that he tarnished the image of the doctor and defamed him.
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The singer said, "The suit in nature seems as malafide and is a sheer misuse of process of law and has been filed just to harass and humiliate the innocent defendant without any reasonable cause and excuse, but with intention to extort money and also to pressurise the defendant in order to achieve ulterior motives by the plaintiff."
In his suit, the doctor had said on April 11, 2015, he was dancing at the venue when Mika, without any reason, started pointing fingers at him from the stage and asked him to move aside allegedly in a rude manner using abusive language.
It was alleged that when the plaintiff did not pay heed to this, the singer got angry and directed his bouncers to drag the doctor to the stage.
It further alleged that Mika slapped the doctor which led to bleeding in his eardrum.
"Shocked and surprised by the illegal and unlawful act of the defendant, the plaintiff felt very hurt, anguished, humiliated and embarrassed as the whole crowd gathered at the venue, most of them were his colleagues and friends...," the doctor said in his plea.
After the incident, Mika had alleged that the doctor was drunk and had misbehaved with women and kids, which was denied by the plaintiff.
A criminal case was lodged against Mika at Inder Puri Police Station here for alleged offences of causing hurt and wrongful restraint under the IPC.
Claiming that the video of the incident was uploaded on Internet and the news published in various newspapers, the doctor claimed that Mika had gone to the media with a "false and concocted version" of the incident.
