Ex-confidant drags Assam CM to court with Rs 100-cr suit

Once the blue-eyed boy of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, former state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has registered a Rs 100-crore civil defamation suit against the former.

Sarma, currently a BJP leader, has accused Gogoi of making false scam charges against him to tarnish his image ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls.

Sarma, convenor of the BJP’s election management committee in Assam, also warned about registering a criminal defamation complaint against the chief minister this week.

“Chief Minister Gogoi has made it into a habit of raising false allegations about me. He is personally attacking me and  trying to tarnish my image. In a recent news item published in “Assam Tribune” by its New Delhi correspondent, Gogoi said I am accused in Saradha scam, Louis Berger scam and that there are corruption cases against me. I urge the chief minister to prove his allegations in the court of law. I have also made the newspaper and its correspondent a respondent in the defamation suit,” Sarma said in a press conference here.

Sarma said he has filed the defamation suit at the first class civil magistrate court here.

Sarma also took another dig at Gogoi for complaining that the BJP-led government at the Centre had withdrawn the 90:10 ratio-funding pattern to Assam.

“CM Gogoi has been alleging that the Centre has withdrawn the 90:10 ratio-funding pattern to Assam. While the UPA government had in 2013-14 allocated Rs 900 crore for the IAY scheme to Assam, the NDA till September has already released Rs 878 crores.This data is enough to prove that the CM is lying,” Sarma said.