Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Member of Parliament Pinaki Misra has sued advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai for defamation after the latter levelled allegations of corruption against him and called him “Canning Lane”, “Odia Babu” and “Dalal of Puri”.
In his suit, Misra has said that he shares a close friendship with Dehadrai’s former partner Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra and became acquainted with Dehadrai's common friends, social circles and has had limited interactions with him.
The suit stated that as Dehadrai and Moitra separated, Dehadrai made various allegations of bribery and corruption against her where he also referred to Misra as the “MP from Orissa”, who was allegedly a “close associate of Smt. Mahua Moitra”.
“Thereafter, in November 2023, Defendant No. 1 (Dehadrai) continued making a barrage of allegations not only against Ms Moitra, but persons with whom she shared a personal relationship, including the Plaintiff,” the suit said.
It further said that in November 2023, Dehadrai started publishing a series of tweets on X (Twitter) in which Misra was repeatedly identified through pseudonyms like “Canning Lane” and “Oriya/Odia Babu” and it was alleged that he (Misra) was involved in criminal conspiracies.
The suit said that Dehadrai’s CBI complaint also alleges that an amount of Rs 2 crore was kept with Misra to make purchases on behalf of Moitra of high value items such furniture but, Misra said, that the furniture was bought by him for his own use prior to the time (May 2021) when the cash was allegedly given to him by Moitra as per the CBI complaint.
“The Defendant No. 1 has also created a pseudonymous account on Defendant No. 4’s platform by the name of “Chandrawami Pinaki Moitra” / “Ahmed Ansari”, through which Defendant No. 1 has not only continued to post such vile, malicious and per se defamatory allegations, but has also commented to confirm that the use of “Canning Lane”/“Odia Babu”/“Dalal of Puri” in Defendant No. 1’s tweets refers to the Plaintiff.”Notably, earlier Mahua Moitra had sued Dehadrai for defamation. However, the High Court denied interim relief to the TMC leader in the suit.
Dehadrai has also filed a defamation case against Moitra. The High Court is still seized of the matter.
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