A Singapore man has reportedly filed a US$2.3 million lawsuit against a woman whom he claims caused trauma after she “friend-zoned” him.

The plaintiff for the suit has been identified as drone racing executive K. Kawshigan.

According to reports, Mr Kawshigan filed the lawsuit after an unidentified woman rejected his advances which the suit claims prompted “sustained trauma” and “reductions in his earning capacity.”

According to the suit, Kawshigan and the woman in question met for the first time in 2016 and got along without issue until September 2020 when “they became misaligned about how they saw their relationship.”

 It’s understood that while she saw him only as a friend, Kawshigan “considered her to be his ‘closest friend.”

It’s further understood that when she requested to limit their time together, he got upset and “did not react well.”

Mr. Kawshigan is said to have threatened legal action a month later, citing “emotional distress.”

Even after agreed counseling sessions together, Kawshigan was reportedly still “unable to accept her reasons for not wanting any relationship or association with him.”

The Washington Post reports that after a year of no progress, she obtained a restraining order against Kawshigan, who then filed the lawsuit in the magistrate court.

The woman is currently contesting the defamation suit, which is set to be heard in Singapore’s High Court next week.  

She claims that Kawshigan filed the suit “for an ulterior purpose” in an effort to get her to “comply with his demands to, among other things, resume communications with him.”

Kawshigan had filed a separate case in Singapore’s Magistrate Court last month, however, it was dismissed due to alleged abuse of process.

It was reported that Kawshigan was ordered to pay her legal costs in that case, in which he sought approximately US$17,000.

He said that she breached an “offer” she made to him “offering room for him to share inspiration, struggle, and achievements” and “meeting up based on mutual availability, beyond coffee settings.”

 Aware Singapore, a women’s rights and gender equality advocacy group, also commented on the matter, blasting the suit as borderline harassment.

In a statement, they said:  “Women do not owe men their time or attention, much less their friendship, love, sexual activity or emotional labor,” the statement read. “Attempting to demand or coerce these things, via legal means or otherwise, can constitute harassment.”

Singapore Management University associate professor of law Siyuan Chen also shares a similar sentiment, arguing that there are “probably no merits” to the claims Kawshigan has made.