Smita gets Rs 15 lakh for legal fight against Outlook

Hyderabad, August 21: The Telangana government gave green signal to Smita Sabharwal, Additional Secretary to Chief Minister, to file a defamation case for Rs 10 crore against the Outlook magazine. Also the government granted a financial aid of Rs 15 lakh to her to bear the legal expenses. The Outlook magazine carried a piece in its issue on July 6, under a gossip column 'Deep Throat'. In this piece, Smita was described as 'eye candy' and also there was a cartoon where she was walking on a ramp wearing jeans and shirt and her political bosses sneering at her. Smita filed a criminal cases against the magazine for the defamatory cartoon. The IAS officer decided to file a civil suit against the magazine as she was not satisfied with the apology rendered by it. Smita informed the government that Rs 9.75 lakh has to be deposited in the court towards the court expenses for filing a civil suit, as per the norms and the government sanctioned Rs 15 lakh. The government added the condition that this amount will be refunded if the IAS officer gets compensation.