Kolkata, Jan 14 (IANS) Following the expiration of the defamation notice deadline issued by Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee regarding her claims of the LoP’s ‘involvement’ in the coal smuggling case, which concluded on Wednesday, Adhikari will now proceed with legal action.

Last week, the counsel of Adhikari sent a notice of defamation to the Chief Minister, asking the latter to provide all purported evidence in the matter within 72 hours or face defamation proceedings, both civil and criminal.

Now, with the deadline for the same having ended, the LoP on Wednesday morning announced that he would now move to the court against the Chief Minister.

“Mamata Banerjee seems to be at wits’ end. The time given to Mamata Banerjee vide the Defamation Notice on my behalf has now expired, and being in a fix has prevented her from replying. The Chief Minister, by her conduct, has made it clear that her imaginary allegations of me being involved in a coal scam were a product of her insalubrious mindset. Get ready to face legal consequences in the Court. Mamata Banerjee, now I will see you in Court,” said Adhikari in a statement that he posted on his social media handle X in the morning.

Adhikari’s defamation notice to the Chief Minister was amid her public statements in the last few days that “the proceeds of the coal smuggling cases in West Bengal reached the level of the Union Home Minister through Adhikari and Bharatiya Janata Party state vice president, Jagannath Chattopadhyay”.

Last week, controversies shrouded the Enforcement Directorate’s parallel raid and search operations in relation to the coal smuggling case at the Indian Political Action Committee’s office in the Salt Lake area on the northern outskirts of Kolkata and I-PAC co-founder Pratik Jain’s residence on Loudon Street in Central Kolkata.

Reacting to the ED operations at the office of I-PAC, which is operating as a vote-strategy agency for Trinamool Congress since 2020, the Chief Minister described the Union Home Minister as a “beneficiary” in the coal smuggling case and the LoP as an “intermediary”.

–IANS

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