A lower court in Assam has issued an order prohibiting Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi from making any comments or defamatory statements about Riniki Bhuyan Sharma till the next scheduled hearing, set for November 9, 2023.
The Congress MP restrained from making any comment on the entrepreneur associated with Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd from any platform, including social media during the period.
Riniki Bhuyan Sharma, the wife of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, had previously filed a defamation lawsuit against Gogoi. She took legal action in response to the MP’s allegations that her company had received a subsidy of Rs 10 crore from the central government.
In a statement on social media, Riniki Bhuyan Sharma announced her intention to take legal action against Gogoi for what she deemed a “slanderous campaign” against her and her company.
“To protect the reputation of our hardworking employees from this slanderous campaign of Sri Gaurav Gogoi – Hon’ble Member of Parliament, I am at this moment constrained to file a case of defamation with Rs 10 cr in damages against him in the court of law,” She said terming the allegations against her an attempt to tarnish the image of an Assamese enterprise led by a female entrepreneur.
This led to a series of accusations and counteraccusations between Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Gaurav Gogoi. Gogoi alleged that Sarma had facilitated a Rs 10-crore subsidy from the Central government’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana for his wife’s company. Sarma categorically denied the allegation, asserting that his wife had not benefitted from any such subsidy.
Gogoi produced evidence in support of his claim, including screenshots from the website of the Ministry of Food Processing, which displayed Riniki Bhuyan’s company name with a mention of a Rs 10 crore grant approved by the government. He also shared a response from Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal in Parliament.
Congress national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh echoed similar allegations against the CM, highlighting the purchase of agricultural land by Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd in Assam’s Nagaon district, which subsequently transformed into industrial land. He pointed out that the company had applied for the Pradhanmantri Kisan Sampada Yojana, resulting in a grant of Rs 10 crore from the Government of India for food processing activities.