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AASU chief advisor files ₹100 cr defamation suit against former NRC coordinator
Bhattacharya said he filed a Rs.100 crore defamation suit at a district court in Kamrup. He said that he waited for an apology from Sarma before taking legal action.
Silchar: All Assam Students Union (AASU) chief advisor Dr Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya on Thursday filed a defamation suit against former state National Register of Citizens (NCR) coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma for allegedly “levelling false charges on financial grounds”.
Bhattacharya said he filed a Rs.100 crore defamation suit at a district court in Kamrup. He said that he waited for an apology from Sarma before taking legal action.
According to Bhattacharya, Sarma accused him of taking money from another former NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela during the NRC update process in 2019.
“I have cracked all the NRC scams. Samujjal Bhattacharya often visited the NRC office in the evening when Prateek Hajela was the coordinator. About what? Market news, Samujal Bhattacharya took Rs.16 lakh a month from Prateek Hajela as part of the scam,” Dev Sarma allegedly wrote on the social media platform Facebook on February 16, last year.
He said that despite being the NRC coordinator for more than two and a half years, none of the AASU leaders came to meet him ever, but they met with Hajela when he was the coordinator.
He further wrote, “I don’t know the truth. Maybe it will be known if the scam is investigated. But one thing is true, Hajela did not want a review of the NRC, and even Samujal Bhattacharya did not want a review of the NRC until the publication of the supplementary list.”
Condemning his remarks, Samujjal demanded an apology from Sarma last year. After filing the defamation suit on Thursday, Bhattacharjya said, “Dev Sarma wanted cheap publicity that is why he dragged my name while making some false and baseless claims. I gave him some time to apologise, but he did not respond. Now with the advice of my lawyers, I have filed a defamation case.”
Responding to the defamation suit, Sarma said he is yet to get any official notice. “I have got some information through the media. I cannot respond till I get an official notice.”
