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Goa court grants interim plea filed by CM’s wife, restrains AAP’s Sanjay Singh
Sulakshana Sawant, who is also a Goa BJP leader, filed a ₹100 crore suit against Sanjay Singh in December last year
PANAJI: A Goa court on Monday restrained Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh from making statements against Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant’s wife, Sulakshana Sawant, during the pendency of a civil defamation suit filed over the Delhi MP’s corruption allegations targeting her.
“The defendant himself or through his associates, representatives, supporters, agents or any other person acting through him are restrained from making public statements maligning the image of the plaintiff similar to the nature of the statements made in the present case and pertaining to the subject matter of the present case till the suit is decided on merits,” ad-hoc civil judge senior division Anuradha Andrade said in her interim order.
Sulakshana Sawant, who is also a Goa Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, filed a ₹100 crore suit against Sanjay Singh in December last year, accusing him of “false malafide and unsubstantiated remarks with a specific intention to malign and tarnish the popular and hard-earned reputation of both the CM and his family.”
At a Press conference in Delhi on December 4, Sanjay Singh alleged that jobs were being sold in Goa and the chief minister’s wife, state ministers and their close associates were among the beneficiaries.
“The name of the chief minister’s wife surfaced, and the entire scam was revealed through an audio recording of an MLA discussing financial transactions. This shocking revelation implicated BJP office bearers, the chief minister’s wife, the woman the Chief Minister met, and the MLA. The scam has been ongoing since 2014, with jobs being sold for bribes,” Singh said at his press conference, according to the plaint filed before the court.
Advocate Surel Tilve, who represented the AAP Rajya Sabha MP, said they would decide their next step after going through the order. “We had already given an undertaking to the court that we will not be making any further statements concerning the present matter until the suit is decided. The plea for temporary injunction has been partially allowed. Once we receive a copy of the order, we will decide whether to prefer an appeal,” he said.
