Guwahati: The Meghalaya government has filed a criminal defamation suit against Trinamool Congress (TCC) national spokesperson Saket Gokhale for allegedly maligning the image of the state government.

The development comes after Gokhale alleged large-scale financial irregularities worth Rs 632 crore in the Meghalaya Ecotourism Infrastructure Development Project (MEIDP) by an IAS officer Dr Vijay Kumar.

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Meghalayan Age Limited, a company under the state government, has sought remedies in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, East Khasi Hills District under Section 200 read with section 190 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.

The firm is seeking Saket Gokhale’s prosecution for the alleged offence of criminal defamation under section 499.

On December 4, Saket Gokhale alleged irregularities of Rs 632 crore in the Meghalaya Ecotourism Infrastructure Development Project.

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 “These irregularities have happened under the company Meghalayan Age which is spearheaded by CM Conrad Sangma‘s top aide IAS officer D Vijay Kumar,” Saket Gokhale had alleged.

”…tenders and RFPs have been floated for these projects – however, the tenders have been floated by Meghalayan Age Ltd and not by the government of Meghalaya which means that none of the details of the tenders is public and the process of awarding these tenders and the names of contractors who have been awarded these tenders to be secret and not revealed publicly,” the TMC leader alleged.

However, the Meghalaya government denied the allegations and clarified that all records are available and that even the tendering process has been done online.

“I personally feel he (Gokhale) has become like a psycho as this man keeps making such allegations about the functioning of the state government. Now we have no more patience. We will have to file a defamation case against him,” Meghalaya deputy CM Prestone Tynsong had said.