Chetan Bhagat's book sale stalled after plagiarism cry

The book One Indian Girl was launched six months ago and has sold thousands of copies.

A Bangalore-based author has accused Chetan Bhagat of plagiarizing her short story for his latest novel, One Indian Girl, and got a court order suspending the book's sales. The book was launched some six months ago and has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and its film version is soon to be released.
Anvita Bajpai, a tech consultant, and a Bangalore-based writer has written two books. One of the stories she wrote, Drawing Parallel, opens her book, Life, Odds & Ends.  
Bajpai says her story has been "intelligently copied" by Bhagat in his latest best seller, One Indian Girl. She has been quoted as saying: " My story is a modern, adventurous feminist who has two men in her life. One is her ex-boyfriend, with whom she has an extra-marital affair and the other her husband. Eventually, she settles for a third person." 
Chetan Bhagat accused of plagiarism for his latest bestseller
Bajpai's story presents life as a puzzle to be solved. How do men and women navigate their lives, make sense of their experiences?  Aliya, the protagonist in 'Drawing Parallels' is a "good girl". Why is she then involved with three men? The story provides an answer.
After a temporary injunction order by a Bangalore civil court staying  the sales of Bhagat's novel, Bhagat said the whole thing was "deeply unfortunate".
The news of the alleged forgery comes fast on the heels of the inclusion of Bhagat's first novel that brought him fame and riches- Five Point Someone, a novel about three friends who are unable to cope with the IIT pressures- in Delhi University's  English Pass Course curriculum. Bhagat was trolled heavily for this. Among other books newly included in the curriculum is J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone.
Bajpai had submitted copies of both books, Bhagat's and her own, to the Bangalore court.  On April 19, the court  passed orders asking the publisher, Rupa Publications, to withdraw all copies of One Indian Girl until further notice.
In his Facebook clarification, Bhagat said all his works were "originals". Bajpai was quite clear Bhagat's One Indian Girl was anything but that. "His novel is a very intelligent copy of my short story. It has too many similarities. The story, the flow and the characters are all so similar." 
Bajpai is an IIT-Madras and IIM-Bangalore graduate. She is based in Bangalore where she is a consultant for start-ups.
Bhagat said in his many clarifications he did not know of Anvita Bajpai's existence. Bajpai said she had given him a copy of her book in 2014 soon after it was launched. "Being my first book, I had eagerly handed out copies to authors, filmmakers and actors for feedback. One of the first copies was given to Bhagat, too." 
Bajpai said her short story Drawing Parallels "is about today's urban scenario of how women strike a balance. It is centered on a non-conventional woman adventurously deviant in choosing sex partners until she settles down in life."
"I found that Bhagat's latest book reads exactly like my story," Bajpai said in a media interview.
According to Bajpai's legal notice, in both books, the main character goes through three relationships one after the other. Both stories begin with a situation where the protagonist, who has already had relationships, chances upon her first lover. In both books, according to the notice, the protagonist takes a break to sort her inner feelings and understand what she really needs from life.
This is not Bhagat's first brush with allegations of plagiarism. His 2014 book, Half Girlfriend, had faced a similar situation. Dr. Birbal Jha, a teacher who runs a spoken English institute in Patna, had accused him of lifting the idea from his play Englishia Boli.
Jha alleged that Bhagat visited his institute in January 2014 and watched the play. According to Jha, he had handed over a copy of the play's script to the author: "This is an educational social drama which was written basically to educate the poor students of Bihar who had problems in speaking English with ease," Birbal said. Half Girlfriend was published later in 2014. Bhagat had dismissed the allegations as not based on fact.
In 2006, an Indian-American student of Harvard University, Kaavya Viswanathan, wrote How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. Later, charges of plagiarism were levelled against her. 
Published by Little Brown and Company, the novel made it to The New York Times bestseller list but was withdrawn after it was discovered that portions of it had been plagiarized from several sources, including the works of Salman Rushdie, Meg Cabot, Sophie Kinsella and Megan McCafferty.
Viswanathan apologized and said any similarities were "completely unintentional and unconscious". The publisher had recalled the copies of the book.
In a Facebook post, Bhagat said, "This is deeply unfortunate. This is an absolute surprise for me as I have never read any of this author's works. My stories are always original - including One Indian Girl - and it is unthinkable for me to do anything like what is suggested. Surely, alleging anything like this in the current digital age is strange."

• India