Karnataka HC stays Sruthi Hariharan defamation case against Sambargi

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has stayed further hearing in a defamation case filed by actress Sruthi Hariharan against film producer Prashanth Sambargi.

Sambargi had approached the high court seeking to dismiss the defamation petition which was being heard by the 8th ACCM court. The high court bench of Justice K Natarajan has stayed further proceedings and posted Sambargi’s plea to February 1, 2023, for further hearing.

Sruthi had levelled serious allegations of sexual harassment against multi-lingual actor Arjun Sarja in October 2018, when the global #MeToo movement reached India. She had alleged that Sarja had misbehaved with her during the filming of a romantic scene for the movie ‘Vismaya’, in 2015.

On October 25, 2018, a conciliatory meeting was held by the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, chaired by senior actor Ambarish. Sambargi, who was close to Ambarish, was also present at the meeting. Sruthi had filed a case with the High Grounds police against Sambargi claiming that he had defamed her by giving out false information about her to the media.