Kolkata (West Bengal):
West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday said he would move court against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after she allegedly failed to respond to a legal notice sent to her over allegations linking him to an alleged coal scam.
In a post on X, Adhikari claimed that the deadline given to the Chief Minister to reply to his defamation notice had expired. He said her silence exposed what he termed the “imaginary” nature of the allegations made against him.
“Mamata Banerjee seems to be at her wits’ end. The time given to her through the defamation notice on my behalf has now expired. By her conduct, the Chief Minister has made it clear that her allegations of my involvement in a coal scam are imaginary. Get ready to face legal consequences in court. Mamata Banerjee, now I will see you in court,” Adhikari wrote.
Adhikari had sent a legal notice to the Chief Minister on Friday, demanding that she provide evidence within 72 hours to substantiate her claims. He had warned that failure to do so would force him to initiate civil and criminal defamation proceedings.
Earlier, the BJP leader had alleged that Banerjee made the accusations in a “desperate attempt to divert attention” from an ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation. He described her remarks as defamatory, politically motivated and harmful to the quality of public discourse.
“These reckless statements were made publicly without any evidence. Such unsubstantiated claims not only damage my reputation but also undermine the dignity of public discourse,” Adhikari had said.
The legal notice, sent through advocate Suryaneel Das, followed Banerjee’s public allegation that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Suvendu Adhikari were involved in the alleged coal smuggling case, claiming that money from the scam was routed to Shah through Adhikari. The Chief Minister made these remarks while addressing a public gathering amid protests against an ED raid at Kolkata’s I-PAC office.
In the notice, Adhikari termed Banerjee’s statements as “reckless, baseless and wholly unsubstantiated,” and objected to what he described as personal and distasteful remarks intended to malign his reputation as a public representative. He called upon the Chief Minister to submit all documents and material supporting her claims within the stipulated time.
