Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, has been summoned before a Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Assam’s Kamrup district in relation to a defamation lawsuit Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had brought against him. Manish Sisodia has been ordered by the court to appear before it on September 29.
Assam | Kamrup’s CJM court summons Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia on September 29, in connection with the defamation case filed by Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
— ANI (@ANI) August 23, 2022
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In June of this year, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had filed a criminal defamation suit against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia over his accusations of corruption in the acquisition of PPE kit at the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak.
In a media briefing on June 4th, Manish Sisodia claimed that the Assam government had given purchase orders for PPE kits to JCB Industries, a business headed by Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, without following proper procedures.
The accusations were backed by a piece written by the Leftist propaganda website The Wire that made identical claims. The report claimed that while Himanta Biswa Sarma served as the health minister in the previous Sarbananda Sonowal government of Assam, a company owned by his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma was given an urgent work order to provide 5,000 PPE kits despite having no prior experience in the distribution or production of medical supplies and protective clothing.
Thereafter, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma denied the claims made in The Wire article and said she didn’t receive any payment for providing the PPE kits. She claimed that the PPE kits were a CSR donation that she made to the National Health Mission and that no money was exchanged for them. In response to the accusations, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma sued Sisodia for defamation in the amount of Rs 100 crore on June 21, 2022.
Manish Sisodia continued to accuse Himanta Biswa Sarma of corruption despite Riniki Bhuyan Sarma’s explanations, claiming that Himanta Biswa Sarma awarded contracts for government purchases to businesses run by his wife and close friends. Himanta Biswa Sarma then filed a criminal defamation action against Manish Sisodia on June 30 at the Kamrup Rural Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court. The complaint was filed under Indian Penal Code sections 499 (harming reputation), 500 (defamation), and 501 (publishing defamatory matter).
Manish Sisodia under scanner
It is worth noting that the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister is facing the wrath of investigative agencies in a slew of cases. Following hours of raids into the suspected excise fraud, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named 15 suspects, including Manish Sisodia, in an FIR recently. The excise department, which the deputy chief minister controls, introduced a new policy last year that mandated the closure of government liquor outlets and the licencing of private enterprises.
It has been alleged that irregularities were committed in changes to the Excise Policy, granting excessive favours to licensees, waiving/reducing licence fees, extending L-1 licences without authorisation, and so on. It is further claimed that illegal earnings from these crimes were channelled to concerned public personnel by private parties, who then made fraudulent entries in their books of accounts.
