Assam chief minister’s wife Riniki Bhuyan has filed a civil defamation against Manish Sisodia of Rs 100 crore for the PPE Kit issue on Tuesday.
Defamation has been filed, the matter is expected to be listed tomorrow at Gauhati High Court
“My client Riniki Bhuyan Sarma has filed an FIR. Manish Sisodia gave a political statement and dragged my client Riniki Bhuyan has not filed any tender for the process. She submitted the PPE kit as donation under CSR activities,” Advocate P Nayak.
Recently, at a press conference in Delhi, the AAP leader alleged that the Assam government had given contracts to companies owned by Sarma’s wife and son’s business partners for a supply of PPE kits above the going market rates during the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Sarma was then the state’s health minister.
Sisodia’s statements were based on a series of reports by Delhi-based news website The Wire, in collaboration with a Guwahati-based portal, The Cross Current published earlier this week, which alleged that companies linked to Sarma’s wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, and his “close” business associates received contracts for emergency medical supplies (including PPE kits and hand sanitisers) at a much higher price than the going rate, and without following a proper tender process. The allegations were based on RTI replies from the state’s National Health Mission (NHM).
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