‘I FELT THAT I WAS STILL BEING PUNISHED’

Former reality TV star Ashutosh Kaushik has knocked on the doors of Delhi High Court to invoke the ‘right to be forgotten’

Actor and former reality TV star Ashutosh Kaushik, who won Roadies 5 in 2007 and Bigg Boss season 2 in 2008 filed a plea in the Delhi High Court on Thursday invoking the right to be forgotten. He has asked for removal of videos, photos and articles related to his drunk driving case in 2009 from various online platforms.

Talking about the plea, Kaushik explains, “I had been thinking about filing the petition for a while and had been working on it since last year. My petition says that my drunk driving case, which was years ago, and was highlighted and splashed all over the internet, be removed. I had paid the fine and done my duty to society. The case is over but even after 10 years, the video is available. When anyone searches my name on the internet, they see the video and form an opinion of me. Dus saal mein duniya badal jaati hai. I have got the punishment for my crime, so why am I being punished even now?”

Kaushik admits that this has severely affected his personal life as well. He says, “Family members see it, tomorrow my kids will see it. That’s why I went to court. Beizzati si feel hoti hai. Rishtey bhi aaye toh videos dekh kar kaha ke, ‘Ashutosh pee kar drame karta hai’. I don’t want to this to continue.”

Kaushik admits that he had approached news channels who have the said articles and videos, and requested them to remove them from their websites but they didn’t agree. That left him with no choice but to go to court. “Maine kaha, ‘bhai kama liya in videos se, ab hata do’, par woh nahi maane,” says the 41-year-old.

After filing the petition on July 22, he got a hearing, where the court gave Google and other channels, a month’s time to respond.

“The court felt the videos did violate my right to privacy at some level. There are many people like me who are paying the price of some incident that happened years ago. We have submitted examples of such cases abroad that got the links removed,” he explains.

The petition will next come up for hearing on December 1.

The court also felt the videos did violate my right to privacy at some level.

ASHUTOSH KAUSHIK, Actor and former reality TV star