Bollywood actor Ali Zafar has finally reacted to the sexual harassment claims made by Pakistani singer Meesha Shafi. The actor filed a defamation suit on Sunday in a district court in Lahore and has made a claim of damages worth Rs 1 billion, two months after the tweeted about the harassment on Twitter.
According to media reports, Ali in his suit has said that the sexual harassment claims have caused tremendous injury to his "reputation, goodwill, livelihood" through "false, slanderous and defamatory". The statement also goes on to say that Meesha has associated herself with the #MeToo movement which was started by Rose McGowan and the latter has even called Shafi ‘a heroine for our times’. Ali Zafar has claimed Rs 2 crore for mental torture, loss of contacts at Rs 8 crore. The suit also goes on to claim loss of reputation and goodwill at Rs. 50 crores and loss of business opportunities at Rs. 40 crores.
Interestingly, Meesha Shafi had earlier confirmed that she had received a legal notice from Ali Zafar telling her to delete the tweet regarding the sexual harassment claim. The notice also went on to state that if she failed to delete it they would file the defamation suit but the singer did not change her stand. In April 2018, after Meesha Shafi spoke out on Twitter, there were three more women from different professions who claimed sexual harassment by the actor, which he has already denied.