KOLKATA: Anil Biswas, State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal, has sought Rs. 45 crore in damages from Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury in a defamation suit filed against the latter in the Calcutta High Court on Friday.

Mr. Biswas' lawyer moved the court of Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta for the damages claiming that the Congress MP had made serious allegations against his client in an interview to a private television channel in November thus tarnishing his image. The plaint was conditionally admitted and its maintainability was subject to scrutiny, it was ruled.

Mr. Chowdhury, who is now on bail after being charged for a double murder in Berhampore last year, had alleged that the CPI(M) leader who is also a member of the party's Polit Bureau had stashed away a huge sum of money in a bank in the United States. Mr. Biswas had also filed a criminal defamation case against Mr. Chowdhury on November 14 before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in which Mr. Chowdhury was granted bail.

Mr. Biswas had then told the court that he was appalled to have heard of the allegations made by Mr. Chowdhury against him in the interview broadcast on November 9.

The interview had created ripples in local political circles. Mr. Biswas demanded that Mr. Chowdhury substantiate the charges with concrete evidence within 48 hours. In the event of that happening Mr. Biswas would immediately quit active politics.

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