Jammu, July 17: J&K Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Ravinder Raina Monday served a legal defamation notice to former MLC Surinder Choudhary for levelling “baseless allegations against him with the sole aim to damage his (Raina’s) reputation within the party and among the masses.”
A statement issued by BJP said, “Choudhary’s remarks (against Raina) coincided with his (Choudhary’s) joining the National Conference after quitting BJP. He had an over year-long association with the national party. Choudhary had earlier quit the Peoples Democratic Party before joining BJP.”
As per BJP press statement, Raina, in his legal notice, sought an “unconditional apology from Choudhary within a week for his (Choudhary’s) attempts to damage his (Raina’s) reputation among the masses and the party ranks and warned of a defamation suit worth Rs 5 Cr against the politician (Choudhary) after the expiry of the deadline.”
In the legal notice, Navyug Sethi, J&K High Court lawyer, representing Raina said that the “intentional defamation” of his client was a “designed move coinciding with the joining of Choudhary in National Conference and his client suffered serious damage to his name, reputation and goodwill besides suffering from mental trauma.”
“You may choose any political party that suits your ambition, yet the choice of words in the tweet on July 11 are purely inappropriate, rather defamatory to my clients and the BJP, despite you knowing well that my client was not involved in any of the alleged acts,” the legal notice read.
Sethi said, “It is clear that in order to damage my client’s reputation and years of goodwill as an honest upright politician, the allegations have been levelled and they have tarnished his (client’s) reputation amongst the general public as also in his party circles and relatives.”
As per BJP statement, Sethi said his client was well within his legal rights to invoke remedies, both under civil and criminal law against Choudhary.