Guwahati: Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has summoned before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Guwahati on September 29 in connection with the defamation case filed by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
CM Sarma had filed a case against Sisodia over his allegations of malpractice in giving contracts for PPE kit when Sarma was the state health minister during the Sonowal-led government.
The deputy chief minister of Delhi said that the current chief minister of Assam, who was the health minister at the time, had grossly overpaid for PPE kits by a company affiliated with his wife.
Moreover, CM Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma has already filed a Rs. 100 crore civil defamation case against Sisodia.
“His wife’s business received the contract from Himanta Biswa Sarma. While other PPE kits were acquired from another company on the same day for 600 each, he spent 990 for his. This is a serious offence, “When making the accusations earlier this month, Mr. Sisodia remarked.
Sisodia asserted that he had the paperwork to back up his claim.
In a joint investigative article published on June 1, the digital media outlets “The Wire” in New Delhi and “The Crosscurrent” in Guwahati reported that the Assam government had placed four orders for emergency medical supplies connected to COVID-19, most likely without following the correct procedures.
The media sites claimed that all four orders, placed between March 18 and March 23, 2020, were won by three enterprises controlled by Riniki Bhuyan Sarma and the family’s business partner Ghanshyam Dhanuka. They did this by referencing a number of Right to Information responses.
Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, who said that she did not receive “a single dime” for them, has denied any wrongdoing in the supply of PPE kits to the National Health Mission.
The Assam government and Mr. Sarma have each categorically refuted any allegations that members of the chief minister’s family were complicit in the alleged wrongdoings. They have also referred to the accusations as “false, fictitious, spiteful, and of entrenched interests.”