Will keep fighting harder: Trinamool MP Saket Gokhale on court order attaching salary

"It doesn't matter to me -- I'll only keep fighting even harder. I am a soldier of Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool," Gokhale said in a brief statement issued to media.

New Delhi: After Delhi High Court ordered attaching part of his salary every month in connection with a defamation case, Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Friday said he will "keep fighting harder", even as 41 party MPs decided to contribute Rs 4,000 each every month to him.

The Delhi High Court had ordered attaching part of his salary of Rs 1.90 lakh until Rs 50 lakh is deposited with the court in a defamation case filed by former diplomat Lakshmi Puri, wife of Union Housing and Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri. She sued Gokhale in 2021 for his allegations against her financial affairs in the context of an apartment she owned in Geneva.

"It doesn’t matter to me. I will only keep fighting even harder. I am a soldier of Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool," Gokhale said, referring to the single benh order.

Sources said Gokhale would file an appeal against the order. They also claimed 75 per cent of his salary has been attached, which is his "only source of income".

In solidarity with him, Trinamool Congress floor leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Lok Sabha) and Derek O'Brien (Rajya Sabha) said All India Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party has unanimously decided that all of their 41 MPs would voluntarily contribute Rs 4,000 each per month to Gokhale.

"The MPs will not allow this government, with their political vendetta, to suppress his voice both inside and outside Parliament. We are one family, led by our beloved Chairperson of AITC, Mamata Banerjee," they said.