Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has filed a criminal defamation suit against Manish Sisodia after the latter accused Sarma and his wife of PPE-kit supply scam.
Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia (left), Assam CM Himants Biswa Sarma.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has filed a criminal defamation suit against Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in connection with the press conference that the latter had held on June 4.
During the press conference, Sisodia had slammed the BJP and asked why the party was silent on the alleged PPE supply scam involving the Assam CM’s wife. Sisodia alleged that Sarma had awarded a contract for PPE kits to a company linked to his wife at above market rates.
The defamation suit was filed at the CJM court, Kamrup rural district on Thursday.
Sisodia will face up to two years in prison if the defamation is proven to be true. The court has scheduled Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma’s initial deposition for July 22.
Earlier, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, the wife of the Assam CM, had filed a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Sisodia.
BACKGROUND
On June 1, digital media organisations – New Delhi-based ‘The Wire’ and Guwahati-based ‘The Crosscurrent’ had in a joint investigative report, claimed that the Assam government had placed four Covid-19 related emergency medical supply orders, most likely without following proper process.
Citing a series of Right to Information replies, the media portals claimed that all the four orders, placed between March 18 and March 23 of 2020, were bagged by three firms owned by Riniki Bhuyan Sarma and the family’s business associate Ghanshyam Dhanuka.
In a tweet she had refuted any wrongdoing in the supply of PPE kits to the National Health Mission and said she did not take a “single penny” for them.
The present Assam government and Sarma have separately denied all charges that the chief minister’s family was involved in the alleged malpractices and termed the allegations by the two digital media as “false, imaginary, malicious and of vested interests”.
Sarma was the Health and Family welfare minister in 2020 during the first BJP-led state government.
(With inputs from PTI)