Days after the Congress party attempted to malign Union Minister Smriti Irani and her family’s reputation by making scurrilous allegations against her 18-year-old daughter Zoish Irani of running an illegal bar in Goa, a local Goan family has claimed ‘exclusive’ ownership of the business. On Friday, July 29, owners Merlyn Anthony D’Gama and her son Dean D’Gama replied to a show cause notice issued by Excise Commissioner Narayan M Gad. In the reply, they stated that the property “is exclusively its business and involves no other person/ persons”.
The Goan family added that they “have not acted in contravention of any of the provisions of the Goa Excise Duty Act and Rules, 1964”. Merlyn D’Gama, the wife of Anthony D’Gama, and their son, in a written reply to the Excise department, said the allegations made in the complaint “are totally baseless and unsubstantiated”.
Notably, the licence of the Silly Souls Cafe and Bar, which was dragged into the controversy, was in name of Anthony D’Gama. Upon his demise in 2021, the licence would have passed on to his legal heir after the appropriate procedure. This year when Anthony D’Gama’s son applied for renewal of licence, he mentioned that the transfer of title shall be concluded in 6 months period. However, the Goa Excise commissioner sent him a show cause notice for the same.
The show cause notice was issued after a Goa ‘activist’ Aires Rodrigues filed an RTI application asking for information on the Excise License issued to Silly Souls Goa Cafe and Bar. After receiving the pertinent information, Rodrigues took to his website to issue a statement about the restaurant, claiming that an excise license was falsely issued to the restaurant and it indicates widespread corruption by the Irani family. After the complaint was filed, the excise department of Goa issued a show cause notice to the restaurant.
The response stated that on June 22, Merlyn and Dean, who holds the Power of Attorney on behalf of the family since August 20, 2021, had applied for the renewal of the liquor licence, which was in Anthony’s name. Anthony’s death certificate, issued by Brihanmumbai Municipal Company, was annexed to the application. Dean was asked to give an undertaking that the license would be transferred within six months, it stated.
The reply further added that Dean had signed the renewal and application forms for the excise licence when his father was still alive. For the final renewal following the death of his father, “the term ‘late’ remained to be pre-fixed which is a bona fide mistake and is neither deliberate nor willful.” This was done due to “sheer inadvertence” and “sheer oversight and bona fide omission,” read the reply.
‘No, Absolutely nothing’, bar owner’s lawyer reacts when asked about the involvement of Smriti Irani’s family in the bar
Benny Nazareth, the Goan family’s lawyer said, “We are governed under the Portuguese Civil Code. Under the Code, the ownership of the property is jointly in the name of the husband and the wife in terms of Article 1117 (of the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867). But the administration is always in the name of the husband, in terms of the law. But when any spouse dies, the administration automatically goes to the other spouse. So, here the spouse automatically becomes the administrator of the estate. There is nothing further that needs to be done.”
The lawyer, when questioned if the restaurant had any connection with Smirti Irani or her family members, as concocted by the Congress party, asserted, “No, Absolutely nothing. The owners are the D’Gamas.”
The next hearing will be held on August 22.
Delhi HC asks Congress leaders to remove defamatory posts against Smriti Irani’s daughter
It may be recalled that on July 29, the Delhi High Court, which had summoned Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, and Netta D’souza in a civil suit filed by Union Minister Smriti Irani, asked the three Congress leaders to delete their tweets alleging that Union Minister Smriti Irani’s teenage daughter is running an illegal bar in Goa. The Delhi High Court warned that if the leaders failed to remove the tweets in the next 24 hours, Twitter will remove them.
Smriti Irani sends legal notice to Congress leaders
On July 24, Union Minister Smriti Irani issued a legal notice to Congress leaders for dragging her personal life into politics and casting aspersions on her 18-year-old daughter, Zoish Irani. In a notice addressed to Congress leaders Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh, Netta D’Souza and the party itself through its President Sonia Gandhi, Irani has sought them to cease and desist from the dissemination of defamatory, derogatory, false and misleading information and allegations on her daughter.
Irani, in her legal notice, has reiterated that her daughter Zoish was never involved in running any bar in Goa and that she had also never applied for any licence for ‘running’ any bar or for any business enterprise. Further, she has also not been served any show cause notice from the Excise Department of Goa till date.
Smriti Irani also filed a defamation suit against Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh, Netta D’Souza, seeking damages of over Rs 2 crore for baseless allegations against her and her daughter.
Prior to this, the Union Minister hauled Congress leaders over the coals and challenged them to show her daughter’s name in the show cause notice they had flashed in the press conference.
Addressing the media, Irani had said on Saturday, that the allegations against her daughter were levelled at the behest of the Congress leadership, i.e the Gandhi family, because she dared to hold a press conference and question Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi about the Rs 5,000 crore loot of the Indian treasury.
Congress attempts to tarnish the reputation of Smriti Irani’s teenage daughter
It may be recalled that the Congress party leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, and Netta D’souza had launched an ad hominem attack on BJP leader Smriti Irani by making false allegations against her 18-year-old daughter Zoish Irani. The Congress leaders on Saturday, July 23 accused Zoish Irani, who had interned at Silly Soul restaurant and bar in Goa back in 2019, of attempting to get a fake bar license.
They alleged that the license was taken in June 2022, in the name of a man who had died in May 2021, 13 months prior to the license being taken. They further alleged that the restaurant had received two licenses, whereas a restaurant is allowed to get only one bar license according to Goa laws.
While making these false allegations, Congress’ Pawan Khera made insinuations about the upbringing of Zoish Irani.
