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CNR No : HCBM020363912026 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION INTERIM APPLICATION (L) NO. 36390 OF 2026 IN SUIT (L) NO. 36383 OF 2026 Leena Gandhi Tewari ...Applicant/Plaintiff Versus John Doe / Ashok Kumar & Ors. ...Defendants _______

Mr. Kunal Dwarkadas a/w. Mr. Rahul Dwarkadas, Mr. Aniket Kharote, Mr. Rahul Deshpande, Mr. Neveille Mukerji and Mr. Raushan Kumar i/b. RJD &

Partners, for the Applicant/Plaintiff.

_______

CORAM : ARIF S. DOCTOR, J.

DATE : 28th OCTOBER, 2026 P.C.

1. The matter has been moved today for urgent ad interim relief.

2. Mr. Dwarkadas, the Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the Plaintiff, submits that the Respondents have been served and that the Affidavit of Service has been filed in the Registry. Despite this, none appears.

3. Mr. Dwarkadas then submits that the Plaintiff is the Chairperson of a large multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and featured in the Forbes rankings of the 100 richest Indians in the 2015 list. He then points out that, apart from the Plaintiff’s business achievements, the Plaintiff is widely recognised for her social and philanthropic endeavours. He invites my attention to the Plaint to point out that the Plaintiff has founded and actively supports the ‘Dr. Susheela Gandhi Centre for Social Development’, which is dedicated to the education and holistic development of children from less-privileged backgrounds. He then points out that in recognition of the Plaintiff’s philanthropic work, the Plaintiff was ranked 23rd in the Hurun India Philanthropy List 2019 and 3rd in the List of Women Philanthropists 2019, also published by Hurun Report India.

4. Mr. Dwarkadas then submitted that the Plaintiff consciously maintains a low public profile but has been constrained to file the present Suit since the Plaintiff has discovered various fake Facebook accounts created by unknown persons impersonating the Plaintiff. He then invited my attention to printouts of these various Facebook accounts and pointed out that they not only bear the name and description of the Plaintiff but also have various morphed photographs of the Plaintiff. He submits that since the identity of those responsible for opening and/or operating these accounts is presently not known to the Plaintiff, these individuals are joined as John Doe/Ashok Kumar.

5. Mr. Dwarkadas further submits that the persons operating these Facebook accounts appear to be misusing them by taking advantage of the Plaintiff’s reputation as a philanthropist. He submitted that one of the objectives behind creating and operating these fake accounts of the Plaintiff was to defraud individuals who would ordinarily be the recipients of the Plaintiff’s philanthropy. In support of his submission, he invited my attention to a communication annexed at Exhibit “J” to the Plaint, addressed to the Plaintiff by one such individual, namely, Mr. Ajinas Aju, which inter alia records thus viz.

“MAAM For about a year, I used to send you "Good Morning" messages on Facebook every morning, and sometimes "Good Night" messages at night.

After this had been going on for nearly a year, you recently asked me who I was and how I was doing. Since then, we occasionally exchanged updates. Last month, however, my home was flooded during the severe floods, resulting in damage to the house and other property I sent adam photos and videos of the situation. She told me that I was like a brother to her and that it wasn't right for her to live in such a large house while I was homeless, she promised to provide whatever help was needed to build me a house. However, she said that to transfer the funds to my account, I first needed to send 5,000 via Google Pay to the HR manager of her company was persuaded to send the money after being told It was needed to generate an account number for your company, and that it would be embarrassing for you if the balance fell below five thousand. It was only later th