\"One Indian Girl nothing but a copy of Drawing Parallels\", alleges Bengaluru author

Chetan Bhagat’s bestseller has definitely been included in the DU syllabus but he is in trouble now and it doesn’t seem like it will end soon. A Bengaluru girl has accused the Indian author of plagiarising from her book published in 2014 in 2016 bestseller.

According to several media reports, the author of the bestselling book in 2016 One Indian girl is in legal trouble after Bengaluru-based author Anvita Bajpai alleged that the book “has an emotional flow” that is very similar to her short story Drawing Parallels. The short story was published in 2014 as part of a book titled Life, Odds and Ends by LiFi Publications.

The Bengaluru author read through several social media posts before she realised how similar the story was to her short story. She immediately remembered that she had handed him her book at the Bengaluru Literature festival in 2014 for feedback. Chetan Bhagat was sent a legal notice on February 22 asking him to stop the circulation and also to pay Anvita Rs 5 lakh in damages.

However Chetan Bhagat denied the allegations a month later and has even denied reading her books and said that it is deeply unfortunate to hear about it. She has now filed a suit seeking permanent injunction restraining Chetan and the publisher from selling the book and is seeking Rs 1 lakh in damages. The court has now issued a temporary injunction till the next hearing disallowing Rupa Publications from selling the book. The order issued on April 19 says that One Indian Girl has been “adapted” from Drawing Parallels.