Writer Chetan Bhagat now finds himself caught in a “plagiarism” row. A civil court in Bengaluru passed a temporary injunction order on April 19 until further hearing, restraining the sale of his 2016 novel One Indian Girl after city-based author Anvita Bajpai filed a suit claiming that Mr. Bhagat’s book had “intelligently copied the story and characters” of the first short story Drawing Parallels from her book Life, Odds & Ends .
The next hearing has been set for June 1. Mr. Bhagat termed the charges “strange” and “baseless.”
An IIT-Madras and IIM-Bangalore alumnus, Ms. Bajpai said her book was launched in January 2014, a copy of which she gave to Mr. Bhagat when she met him the same year during the Bangalore Literature Festival. “I had not read any of his books then. I gave him a copy of my book, published by LiFi Publications Private Limited, at the Literature Festival. It was only when I became active on social media in September 2016 for the launch of my second book that I came across references to his book. That is when I read it and realised that there were many similarities,” Ms. Bajpai told The Hindu .
The story in her book is centred on a woman and her journey through three relationships. “There are similarities in characterisation and the entire story flow is similar,” she alleged.
