Dhumal serves legal notice on state Cong chief

The Mandi bypoll ended a fortnight ago, but state Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was on Friday served a legal notice by former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for public rhetoric against him and his parliamentarian son Anurag Thakur during campaigning.

The Mandi bypoll ended a fortnight ago, but state Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was on Friday served a legal notice by former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal for public rhetoric against him and his parliamentarian son Anurag Thakur during campaigning.

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Dhumal, through his counsel, has asked Sukhu to tender an unconditional and unqualified apology, failing which he would take a legal course.

The Dhumal's counsel maintained that the statements of Sukhu in various newspapers, in which he had levelled allegations on Dhumal during the campaigning for the Mandi bypoll, were baseless, false and defamatory.

The notice states that Sukhu had alleged that Dhumal associated with Anurag Thakur and former health minister Rajeev Bindal to purchase and sale land in Himachal. It also revealed that Sukhu also accused him of selling out resources of the state.

Dhumal has termed these statements concocted and said the statements were made to defame his image and to gain cheap publicity.

The notice said Sukhu had levelled charges of deterioration of political values and commercialisation of politics and patronising corruption on Dhumal.

It also claims that Dhumal discharged his duties as chief minister in a fair, upright and impartial manner, while Sukhu's concocted statements meant that Dhumal was involved in corrupt practices.

It added that Sukhu made such statements to gain political mileage and malign Dhumal's image.
It maintained that Sukhu had also been asked to admit that his imputations published in various papers were false and incorrect.