The ongoing spat between Mitali Srivastava Hough and Utopeia Communicationz has reached the courts.
Srivastava, a former managing partner at Utopeia, has filed a defamation notice against Sudarshan Banerjee, who was the subject of claims of sexual harassment, Krishna Padhye and Krishnaraj Bhat. The trio are the remaining managing partners of the agency.
The notice was filed after a public statement detailing the agency's "side of the story" was published last week, signed by the trio. It included accusations that Srivastava "began to carry an animus" against Banerjee and his wife, Paramita Banerjee, who is also head of HR at Utopeia, when her claims of harassment by Sudarshan Banerjee were found to be groundless.
In her latest media statement announcing court action, Srivastava writes: "Utopeia, the company that I co-founded, and that is now headed by Sudarshan Banerjee, Krishna Padhye and Krishnaraj Bhat, recently issued a public statement defaming and maligning me after I resigned in protest at their collective dismissive attitude towards the allegations of sexual harassment against my co-founder. I have issued them a notice of defamation. I have now instituted the appropriate legal proceedings and will leave it to the court to decide the right from the wrong."
