Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, the wife of Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, filed a Rs 100 crore defamation case against Manish Sisodia, the deputy CM of Delhi on Tuesday.
This comes weeks after CM Sarma had said that a civil defamation case will be filed against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader for accusing the Assam government of handing contracts to his wife’s firms and son’s business partners to supply PPE kits above market rates during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
On behalf of Mrs Sarma, advocate Padmadha Nayak filed the case at the Guwahati civil court.
Nayak said, “As you know that on June 4, AAP leader and Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia called a press conference in Delhi and made certain remarks against my client, alleging that she had got a government contract to supply of PPE kits to the National Health Mission in March 2020. This is a completely false and defamatory statement.”
Mrs Sarma never supplied any PPE kit as a business transaction to the NHM and in fact, donated 1,485 such kits as a corporate social responsibility, the advocate said.
“We have filed a civil defamation case against Manish Sisodia in Guwahati and we are expecting that the case will be listed tomorrow. We have claimed damages of Rs 100 crore,” said Nayak.
It may be noted that a war of words had broken out between Sisodia and Assam CM Sarma following the AAP leader’s allegations.
The Assam CM had threatened a defamation case in a sharp rebuttal of the allegations made by Sisodia.
The deputy CM of Delhi had alleged that the CM Sarma had taken advantage of the pandemic, claiming that while the government of Assam purchased PPE kits at Rs 600 a piece, the CM placed urgent orders with firms of his wife and son’s business partners for Rs 990 a piece.
To support his claims, Sisodia attached the supply order of 5,000 kits at Rs 990 a piece from NHM to JCB Industries, a firm in the name of the Riniki Bhuyan Sarma.
Citing a media report, Sisodia further said that while the contract given to the firm of Assam CM’s wife was cancelled as the company could not supply PPE kits, another supply order was given to a firm belonging to the business partners of his son at a rate of Rs 1,680 per kit.
Meanwhile, CM Sarma had lashed out the allegations made by Sisodia saying that the state did not have enough PPE kits in 2020 when the pandemic was raging across India.
He took to Twitter to write, “My wife gathered the courage to come forward and donated around 1,500 of them free of cost to the government to save lives. She didn’t take a single penny.”
“Stop sermonising. I will see you in Guwahati as you (Sisodia) will face criminal defamation,” he said.
