BENGALURU: A civil court here granted temporary injunction holding back author Chetan Bhagat from selling his book `One Indian Girl' on Tuesday following a city-based writer's suit claiming that the work was a copy of one of her short stories, `Drawing Parallels' from her book, `Life, Odds & Ends'.

Anvita Bajpai, an IIT and IIM graduate and a writer, had filed an original suit seeking a permanent injunction restraining Bhagat and his publisher from selling his recent book and also claimed damages of Rs 1 lakh. After hearing the advocate for Bajpai, the court passed a temporary injunction order on April 19 until the next hearing.

Speaking to TOI, Anvita said: “It all began in 2014 when Chetan Bhagat had come to Bangalore Literature Festival where I met him and gave him a copy of my book for review.

“My story is centred on a woman -feminist, non-con ventional, adventurously de viant especially in matters of relationships with the oppo site sex -who settles down in her third relationship by fin ding a balance for her family and other aspirations. This has been intelligently copied in One Indian GirlBhagat's recent novel which got pub lished in 2016.“

Anvita had sent a legal notice to Chetan Bhagat on February 22, asking him to withdraw the book and pay a sum of Rs 5 lakh towards damages. The following day , Bhagat replied to her denying all allegations and stating that `One Indian Girl' was a totally different story and not based on Anvita's short story .

“After I found out about the plagiarism, I spoke with my lawyer and publisher and took necessary steps to claim by intellectual authority ,“ added Anvita.

Chetan denies allegations:

Chetan Bhagat denied the allegations levelled by Anvita Bajpai and stated that he has never met her or read any of her work.

Bhagat issued a statement: “This is for one an absolute surprise for me as I have never read any of this author's works. My stories are always original,including One Indian Girl, and it is unthinkable for me to do anything like what is suggested. Surely, alleging anything like this in the current digital age is strange.“

The writer added, on Twitter , “I write universal stories about everyday issues. This could be a misunderstanding and am sure will be clarified as what is being suggested is baseless.My publisher's legal team will be taking appropriate steps.“

