Court staying ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ for Ramalinga Raju triggers debate

It’s known that, earlier this week, a Hyderabad court asked Netflix to withdraw the streaming of ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ based on a petition filed by the crest-fallen IT czar Ramalinga Raju. Raju, the former Satyam Computers supremo, had approached the court saying that the trailer of the web-series clubs him with Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, thereby tyring to influence the viewers.

In its judgement, the court said that streaming the web-series will cause damage to the reputation of Raju.  In his petition, Raju said that the web-series will have a “negative influence on the minds of the viewers”.

The intervention of the court has triggered a debate around freedom of speech.  Raju has contended that portraying him in a bad light when his alleged wrongs are still being probed will defame him. It’s once again the classic ‘freedom of expression vs defamation’ debate at work.

There have been hundreds of articles that have tried to project Raju in a “negative light” since the Satyam scandal hit the IT world like a hurricane in 2008.  How come the Netflix web-series alone is problematic, some are asking. Others are saying that it’s wrong to witch-hunt Raju when the case is sub-judice.