CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday filed a defamation suit seeking Rs 1 crore in damages from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for wilful defamation as part of an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) conspiracy against the Badal family as well as the SAD.
He filed a civil suit in this regard in the court of the civil judge at Muktsar through his advocate and also submitted court fees of Rs 2.29 lakh. The suit stated that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann indulged in a drama on November 1, 2023 by asserting that precious water of Punjab was taken by the plaintiff and his family to their farmland in Balasar village of Haryana by constructing a private canal. It said the Chief Minister made this scurrilous statement despite knowing the real facts of the case and did so deliberately knowing it would have a cascading effect due to the position he held.
The suit said the real facts of the case were that he as well as the SAD had fought tirelessly to save each and every drop of water even as the Chief Minister and AAP had taken an adverse stand with respect to river waters in Haryana to gain political mileage.
Badal in his suit said Mann was regularly making false, unsubstantiated and scurrilous statements against him. He said the Chief Minister had portrayed him as well as the Badal family as highly corrupt people who had looted Punjab besides calling them anti-Sikh and anti-Punjab. “All this has been done as part of a preplanned conspiracy of the Chief Minister in league with his political bosses,” he said.
The suit, filed by advocate Manjinder Singh Brar, also noted that sufficient time had been given to the Chief Minister to apologise for his conduct by issuing a legal notice on November 17, 2023. It also stated that the damages of Rs 1 crore when awarded would be distributed in the service of the Panth among families of martyrs who laid down their lives for the country.
Later talking to newsmen, Badal said Mann had made a habit of lying and practised the politics of lies. “Now he will be held to account and will have to appear in court and explain his lies. We will not let him misuse his position as chief minister to indulge in slander,” he said.
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