GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has stayed the proceeding of the Civil Judge of Kamrup Metro district on a Rs 100 crore defamation suit filed by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma against Delhi chief minister Manish Sisodia for linking her to allegations of corruption in PPE kit supply in the state in 2020.
Sisodia is in jail in a case about alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy case. He was arrested on February 26 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
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A single-judge bench of Gauhati High Court comprising Justice Parthivjyoti Saikia on September 15 listed the case for further hearing after four weeks.
“Till returnable date, further proceeding of TS No 388/2022 pending in the court of the Civil Judge No 1, Kamrup (M), Guwahati shall remain stayed,” the court said in the order.
Riniki Bhuya Sarma had filed a Rs 100 crore defamation case against Sisodia before Civil Judge No 1 alleging that Sisodia in a press conference in New Delhi on June 4, 2022, accused her of indulging in corruption while supplying PPE kits in the state during the first wave of Covid-10 pandemic in 2020.
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It was alleged that Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was the health minister of the state, then gave PPE kit supply orders to the firms of his wife and son’s business partners without tender process and the kits were purchased by the government at a higher price.
In her petition, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma alleged that Sisodia gave a political statement and dragged her. She said she had not filed any tender for the PPE kits supply process but gifted the PPE kits as donations under CSR activities.
However, the case was challenged in the Gauhati High Court on the ground that Sisodia had not “pronounced” her name in the press conference.
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The defence was submitted that Sisodia’s press conference was based on two news reports from two web portals- The Cross Current and The Wire.
After hearing both parties, the High Court stayed the proceeding of the case by the Civil Judge and issued notice to all parties returnable within four weeks.
Senior lawyer of Gauhati High Court Alal Uddin Ahmed, and Supreme court lawyers Anupam Srinivastav and Hrishikesh Kumar appeared on behalf of Sisodia.
On April 10, the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kamrup (Rural), A Bhattacharyya gave relief to Sisodia from his personal appearance in the court in connection with another criminal defamation case filed by Himanta Biswa Sarma in July 2022.