Latha Rajinikanth, wife of actor Rajinikanth, called the cheating case filed against her by a Chennai-based advertisement firm in 2015, in regards to the Tamil film Kochadaiiyaan, to be an incident of “humiliation, harassment, and exploitation”.
Latha was present at the court in Bengaluru on Tuesday when she was granted bail and the hearing was postponed to January 6.
Speaking to ANI, she said, “For me, it’s a case of humiliation and harassment and exploitation of a popular person. This is the price we pay for being celebrities. So there may not be a big case, but the news becomes very big. There is no fraudulence. I have nothing to do with the money that’s being reported in the press. I made sure that, as a guarantor, they have been paid.”
Calling it a “falsely implicated case”, she added, “It’s a framed case saying there’s a letter given in the court of Karnataka with my handwriting. But forensic has cleared it and the Supreme Court has told me that I need not appear. But since the case came back to the Karnataka court, giving respect to law and the courts I said I’ll appear once as it’s better to file the discharge petition.”
When asked about her next course of action, Latha said, “If they go on like this, it’s defamation and I’ll file a case back. This is celebrity harrasment and absolutely nothing else. May be they think by exploiting us they can get something out of it. They get satisfaction of having touched somebody and enjoying the limelight of it. Second is harrassment and third is settlement. If the case requires anything, I’ll suppport it as I want to come out it. It’s been too long.”
In 2015, Chennai-based Ad Bureau Advertising Pvt. Ltd. had lodged a private complaint in a magistrate court in Bengaluru accusing Latha of filing a suit in a Bengaluru civil court in 2014 by allegedly producing a fabricated document and getting a temporary injunction against the company and various media houses from making any statement against her in relation to a financial dispute.
The temporary injunction was related to a financial dispute between Ad Bureau and Mediaone Global Entertainment Limited, which had produced Kochadiiyaan, starring Rajinikanth.
The latest development comes after the Supreme Court, on 10 October, restored alleged criminal charges against Latha as the bench passed the order while hearing petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment. The court also asked her to have the accusations of forgery and cheating against her dismissed by seeking the trial court. The Karnataka High Court, in August this year, quashed the cheating charges against Latha but maintained the forgery cases against her, which she challenged in the Supreme Court.
