Alleged JPMorgan sex slave Chirayu Rana scored a major win in Manhattan court Tuesday when a judge said he could move his case from state to federal court — giving him a do-over after months of unfavorable rulings.
“Contrary to the defendant’s contentions, there have been no findings of fact to suggest that [Rana] has acted in bad faith, engaging forum shopping, or that he seeks to avoid an adverse ruling,” Judge Dakota Ramseur said.
But the 35-year-old former banker also suffered two blows.
His accused former supervisor, Lorna Hajdini, can now proceed with her related defamation claims against him in a totally separate lawsuit, meaning it is not beholden to his case — while her camp must be given the names of Rana’s previously anonymous witnesses and unredacted versions of their statements before discovery, Ramseur said.
Rana filed his bombshell state lawsuit anonymously in April alleging he was sexually abused by the 37-year-old Hajdini — who along with JPMorgan has vehemently denied all of his claims.
The lawsuit included an explosive claim that Hajdini exposed her chest to him at one point while taunting, “I bet your little Asian, fish head wife doesn’t have these cannons.”
Lawyers for the powerhouse bank and Hajdini argued in court Tuesday that Rana should not be allowed to ditch his thus-far unfavorable state proceeding for a federal do-over unless certain conditions were met.
Their demands were that he pay their legal fees to date, admits to making some false claims such as about where his mother lives and unmasks his secret anonymous “witnesses,” who made sworn statements supporting his salacious lawsuit in April.
Follow the latest on the bizarre JPMorgan banker ‘sex slave’ allegations:
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Hajdini’s lawyers also were seeking to separate out her counterclaim against him.
She scored on the counterclaim, the witnesses and partly on the legal fees.
The judge said Rana should pay for her camp’s fees involving his push from state to federal court. It wasn’t clear what that amount might be.
Rana’s legal team had futilely tried to fight back, arguing there was “no legal basis” to their demands and calling the wish-list “intimidation.”
“Defendants are seeking conditions to be imposed to punish complainant for bringing claims,” said Rana’s lawyer, Monika Hinken, claiming the goal was to “intimidate [Rana] and every other sexual assault victim who is contemplating going forward.
“They’re asking for one individual to underwrite the litigation budget for one of the largest institutions ever — win or lose,” she said.
Ramseur, who normally speaks with off-the-cuff candor, read dryly from a lengthy prepared order that gave both sides part of what they wanted.
She noted that Rana “has not disputed my ruling” in terms of hearings over the state-to-federal-court move and called the defense’s fee request “overbroad.”
Rana originally filed his suit anonymously, but The Post exclusively unmasked him as the plaintiff — and he was eventually ordered by a judge to update his lawsuit under his real name.
In his suit, Rana’s detailed claims that he was drugged and forced to act as a sex slave for Hajdini.
Rana moved to pull the plug on his state suit in June in favor a federal case, with his legal team claiming the state filing left out federal violations including race discrimination, retaliation and interference with medical and family leave.
But legal experts say the move reeked of possible forum-shopping — since those claims could easily be made in state court.
Weeks ago, Ramseur ruled that Rana’s first lawyer could withdraw from the case — but he must also disclose any false statements his client may have made in the original suit. Nothing has been disclosed thus far.
