100 Crore Defamation Suit Filed Against Manish Sisodia By Assam Chief Minister's Wife

Sisodia has reportedly been asked to appear before the Kamrup Court either in person or through his lawyer on July 25 to present his side in the defamation lawsuit filed against him.

Sisodia had in a press conference held on June 4 alleged that the Assam government had given contracts to the CM's wife's company and son's business partner to supply PPE kits above the market rate during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The AAP leader had also tweeted – "Honorable Chief Minister @himantabiswa ji! Here is your wife's contract to buy 5000 kits in the name JCB Industries at 990/- per kit… Tell me, is this paper false? Is it not corruption to give a tender purchase order to your wife's company as a health minister?"

Counsel Padmadhar Nayak is representing Riniki Bhuyan Sharma.

Following Sisodia's allegations, Assam's Chief Minister had said that legal action will be initiated against the AAP leader.

Himanta Biswa Sharma had said, "At a time when the entire country was facing the worst pandemic in over 100 years, Assam hardly had any PPE kits. My wife took the courage of coming forward and donated around 1500 PPE kits free of cost to the Government to save lives. She didn't take a single penny."

Refuting Sisodia's allegations, Ms. Sharma also had issued a clarification. She clarified by writing, "In the first week of the pandemic, not a single PPE kit was available with Assam. Taking cognizance of the same, I reached out to a business acquaintance and delivered about 1500 kits to NHM with a lot of effort. Later on, I wrote to the NHM to treat the same as a part of my CSR."

She added that "I didn't take a single penny out of the supply. I have always been transparent about my belief in giving back to the society, irrespective of my husband's political standing."

This is not the first time when an AAP leader has to face a defamation case for corruption allegations, earlier, Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologized to BJP leaders Late Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari for levelling false charges against the ministers after a defamation case was filed against Kejriwal.

Last week, the Delhi High Court had restrained AAP and its Delhi MLA Vinay Mishra from making defamatory statements against RLP MP Hanuman Beniwal.

In February, a Delhi Court has issued summons to AAP MLAs Satyender Jain, Aatishi Marlena, Raghav Chadha and Sourabh Bharadwaj and its National Executive Member Durgesh Pathak on a defamation complaint filed by BJP NDMC Councillor Chhail Bihari Goswami.