A court in Assam’s Guwahati on Wednesday restrained three Congress leaders, including the head of the party’s state unit Gaurav Gogoi, from making “defamatory statements” about Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, PTI reported.
Civil Judge Nayanjyoti Sarma ordered an interim injunction on Gogoi, Jitendra Singh and Bhupesh Baghel from “making, publishing, circulating or disseminating any further defamatory statements or materials” about the Bharatiya Janata Party leader until they appear before the court.
The judge held that not passing such an order would “defeat the justice” and may lead to multiple proceedings.
The court directed the Congress leaders to appear before it on March 9, PTI reported.
The chief minister’s counsel said that the defendants have been issued notices by the court to furnish proof of their allegations, The Assam Tribune reported.
On Tuesday, Himanta Biswa Sarma filed a defamation suit against the three leaders, claiming that they had made malicious allegations against him.
Sarma said on social media that he had sought Rs 500 crore in damages, but did not specify the allegations he was referring to.
The case came following a press conference on February 4 in which the Congress launched a campaign against the chief minister, alleging that around “12,000 bighas of land have been grabbed in the name of his family members in different parts of the state in violation of rules”.
Gogoi had said that the party was investigating and tracing the sources of the chief minister’s assets.
Hours after that press conference, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that he would initiate contempt proceedings against the three politicians and Congress’ Legislative Party leader Debabrata Saikia.
“The era of hit-and-run politics is over,” he had said on social media at the time. “If they have even an ounce of courage or evidence, let them prove every allegation before a court of law.”
The defamation complaint came the same day the Congress’ Assam unit filed a police complaint against the BJP for sharing a video depicting Sarma symbolically firing at images of two Muslim men at point-blank range.
The video, which was posted by the BJP’s Assam unit on Saturday, has been deleted following criticism.
The clip combined what appeared to be original footage of the BJP leader handling rifles with artificial intelligence-generated images portraying Muslims as targets. On-screen text included slogans such as “Foreigner free Assam”, “No mercy”, “Why did you not go to Pakistan?” and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis”.
The BJP’s Assam unit has claimed that the post was unauthorised. One of the four co-convenors of the party’s state social media cell has been removed from his position in connection with the video, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.
Assembly elections are expected to be held in the state between March and May.
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