MUMBAI : Maharashtra transport minister and Shiv Sena leader Anil Parab on Tuesday filed a Rs 100-crore defamation suit against BJP leader Kirit Somaiya at the Bombay High Court for allegedly making ‘malicious, malafide and defamatory’ statements against him.
In his suit, Parab referred to tweets by Somaiya and said that the defendant made “motivated, unverified, frivolous, bogus and malafide” remarks against him in an effort to link him to a reportedly illegal construction in Dapoli, Ratnagiri district. Parab said that he had “no connection whatsoever” with the said construction as alleged by Somaiya.
Parab claimed that successive tweets by Somaiya on the issue were covered by the media across the country, as a result of which he was “being beseeched by journalists, colleagues in the government and within his political party.”
“The defendant (Somaiya) has a known political rivalry with the Plaintiff. In addition, the defendant, for several years, has had a personal envy and grudge against the plaintiff… Somaiya is aware that making tall but false allegations of a reckless nature with scant disregard to verification of facts, attracts media attention,” the minister said.
Parab said that he has no connection with the construction of a resort carried out in Dapoli, as he had sold the said plot to one Sadanand Kadam through a registered sale deed in December, 2020.
He said that after the BJP leader realised that he was no longer the owner of the plot, the latter changed his stance and started accusing him of holding “benami properties”.
