Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, has sued Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi for defamation for making “false” charges of irregularities in a food-processing facility. The lawsuit is for Rs 10 crore.
Her attorney, senior advocate Devajit Saikia, informed PTI that the case was filed at the Kamrup Metropolitan Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) on Friday and it will be moved on September 26.
“My client has sued Gaurav Gogoi for defamation after he made several tweets about X, alleging damages of Rs 10 crore. We have been very clear that we have never submitted an application for subsidy,” he continued.
Hemata ‘s wife’s lawyer asserted the process to seek subsidy has not been initiated at all and for which, a show cause notice was slapped on his client’s firm on May 26 this year. Later, the Ministry of Food Processing sent an email to them .
“On November 22, 2022, the project received approval. We were informed in the previous email that if we failed to submit our proposal, our claim would expire. We are not responding to anything to seek subsidy,” he continued.
The senior lawyer alleged that anything Gogoi wrote on social media regarding Sarma and her company “Pride East Entertainments” was untrue.
“Gogoi failed to complete his homework. A project’s approval does not imply that it has secured funding. We will defend the lawsuit vigorously, ” Samanta said.
After Guwahati-based digital media outlet “The Crosscurrent” published a story alleging that over 50 bigha (nearly 17 acres) of agricultural land at Darigaji village in Kaliabor in Nagaon district was reclassified as industrial land within a month of being purchased by Pride East Entertainments, in which the Chief Minister’s wife serves as Chairman and Managing Director, a huge controversy broke out.
Following this, Gogoi accused Sarma and his wife of corruption in obtaining project funding from the Central Government in a series of tweets that lasted for several days.
The Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha requested the assistance of Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal in exposing the truth regarding the project’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan subsidy.