The Supreme Court of California has ruled in favour of Pakistan’s iconic singer Rahat Fateh Ali’s former international promoter and arts agent Salman Ahmed against a California-based show promoter in a lawsuit of $2.2 million alleging defamation, economic duress and extortion.
California Superior Court judge Carrie A. Zepeda has ruled that Salman Ahmed had acted honestly in his dealings with the show promoter and plaintiff Bikramjeet Singh whose Bollywood Events LLC through Karl Kalra’sJeevanSathi LLC had entered into a contract for a show on October 5 in 2019 at St Jose featuring global sensation UstadRahatFateh Ali Khan.
According to the court documents, Bikramjeet Singh and his company “Bollywood” claimed that they had been victims of alleged extortion, economic duress, common counts, unfair business practises and severe defamation by Salman Ahmed and Rahat who has allegedly extorted $30,000 from him.
The case went on trial before the Superior Court of California, Country of Santa Carla, where Salman Ahmed represented himself and Rahat while Singh appeared through his legal team and RahatFateh Ali didn’t appear before the court. For the previous hearings, Salman Ahmed spent over $50000 on lawyers but then decided to represent the case himself.
Singh and Karl Kalra had agreed to promote a Rahat concert in San Jose, California, for a price of $250,000 for the concert with Salman Ahmed but Singh admitted that before the concert he had only paid $150,000 to Kalra. The court heard that Salman Ahmed had sold the show to Sathi who had further sold it to Singh.
Bikramjeet Singh claimed before the court that Salman Ahmed had agreed to reduce the price for Khan’s performance to $150,000 so that Singh was only obligated to pay Kalra $150,000. On the evening of the concert, $100,000 was outstanding on the contract between Singh and Sathi. The show started two hours late and Rahat appeared on the stage only after $30,000 of the $100,000 was given to Salman Ahmed on Kalra’s behalf. When the concert started two hours late, Salman Ahmed told the crowd that the concert was starting late because the promoter had not paid the full amount to the artist on time, the court heard.
Bikramjeet Singh told the court that he was not obligated to pay the $30,000 or the additional $100,000 because Ahmed agreed to reduce Khan’s concert fee and so $30,000 were extorted from him and his reputation was damaged.
Salman Ahmed denied the allegations and argued that he did not have the ability to modify the contract between Singh and Sathi; Kalra threatened Ahmed and Khan with a lawsuit if Khan performed before Sathi was paid on his contract with Singh; Kalra later instructed Ahmed to accept the $30,000 from Singh the night of the concert; Ahmed gave the money to Kalra and did not keep any of it; and that Ahmed told the truth to the audience in an effort to protect his and Khan’s worldwide reputations.
