Roy has been directed to apologise within the next 30 days (Express Photo/Tashi Tobgyal/File)
The Alipurduar court on Saturday passed an order directing BJP leader Mukul Roy to “apologise in writing’’ to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee for making defamatory statements alleging connections between him and two companies — Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation and Jago Bangla Media Private Limited.
Roy has been directed to apologise within the next 30 days.
Biswa Bangla is owned by the state government, while Jago Bangla publishes the Trinamool mouthpiece.
Abhishek, nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had approached the Alipurduar court after Roy alleged that the Diamond Harbour MP was the proprietor of Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation and Jaago Bangla Media, and that he financially benefited from these two organisations. Roy had made the allegations during a rally on November 10 last year in Kolkata.
On November 21, Abhishek approached the Alipurduar court and the court passed an injunction order restraining Roy from making further statements about Abhishek “that may reveal or may be tantamount to reveal any connection between Abhishek Banerjee with the two organisations… or any other body or organisation, with which Abhishek Banerjee does not have any traceable and valid link.’’
The court observed that Roy has “failed to decipher the true purport and contents of the documents based upon which he made the defamatory statements against Abhishek Banerjee.”
Calling Roy “reckless’’, the court said that there was “no stalwart expertise required’’ to comprehend that “no person could be the sole proprietor of a body corporate’’.
“The court’s order today vindicates Abhishek Banerjee’s stand and shows Mukul Roy’s falsehood. The truth now stands in front of people,’’ said Sanjay Basu, Abhishek’s lawyer. Meanwhile, the criminal defamation case that Roy had filed in a Delhi court against Abhishek subsequent to the latter’s suit, has since been thrown out of court.