The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued summons to Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra on a lawsuit by her estranged friend seeking damages of Rs 2 crore for her alleged defamatory statements against him, as reported by news agency PTI. Dehadrai’s counsel said he was losing business and clients as a lawyer on account of Moitra’s statements on social media. The matter would be heard next on April 8.
Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha last year on December 8 following accusations that she took bribes from businessman and Hiranandani Group CEO Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament. The TMC MP was expelled after the House adopted the report of its ethics committee that held her guilty of allegations against her.
Justice Prateek Jalan also sought the stand of the expelled Lok Sabha MP on lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai’s plea seeking interim relief with respect to the publication of the alleged objectionable content on social and digital media.
The court sought answers from Dehadrai’s counsel on the urgency of seeking an interim order at this stage without waiting for the TMC leader’s reply. The court further stated that it was not a case of victim and perpetrator as both were “warring parties” and the content was published over two months ago.
“This is as much your doing as anyone else. It is very difficult to paint yourself as a victim. You are both warring parties. There is no victim or perpetrator,” Justice Jalan remarked, as quoted by PTI. “These are cases where half of the battle is fought in court and half the battle is fought elsewhere,” added the judge.
Advocate Raghav Awasthi appeared for the plaintiff and stated that his allegations against Moitra have been verified by a parliamentary committee, the Lokpal, as well as the high court, which recently refused to restrain him from posting content against her on social media.
Asking Moitra to file her stand on the case, the court said that best is to give the TMC leader time to file a reply. The court also asked social media platforms Google and X as well as certain media organisations to file their responses.
In the lawsuit filed through lawyer Mukesh Sharma, Dehadrai stated that after he filed a complaint with the CBI with respect to Moitra receiving illegal gratification for unauthorisedly providing her Lok Sabha login credentials to a third party, she “embarked on a ceaseless campaign of slander and abuse” to disseminate “false, abusive, and defamatory statements” against him, as reported by PTI.
According to the plea, Moitra’s statements have lowered the plaintiff’s esteem in the eyes of friends, family, and colleagues, as they portray him as a “person who has become bitter due to a failed personal relationship and is now filing false complaints to take revenge for the said reason.”