Niira Radia to sue RK Anand over ‘Close Encounter’

Niira Radia, the founder of Vaishnavi Corporate Communications and the prominent lobbyist whose alleged conversations grabbed the headlines six months ago, will sue Delhi-based lawyer RK Anand for allegedly defaming her.

Anand, a former neighbour of Radia’s, has been sued for writing a book ‘Close encounters with Niira Radia’ whose publication was stopped by the Delhi High Court today.

The case has been filed under India’s defamation laws and the book has been characterised as fabricated and the result of a personal grudge.

The book, advertised online, calls itself as an account of the ways of Niira Radia… whose alleged tapes have “shaken the government, sent top politicians and corporate executives to jail, and made her a household word in less than a year… No one is better positioned to tell this story than R.K. Anand, one of India’s top criminal lawyers, who knew her closely. She was his neighbour, his friend and confidant..”

RK Anand, one of the most prominent lawyers in the country, and Niira Radia have had a fall-out after remaining friends for years.

Justice VK Jain stayed the book after Radia pleaded that release of the book would cause irreparable loss to her reputation in the society.