Reliance Infrastructure Limited (R-Infra) has filed a Rs.100-crore defamation suit against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Bombay High Court. It said that the allegations made by the party against the company were false and defamatory in nature.
The AAP had alleged that the customers in Mumbai had to pay more for power due to the company's fault. The court is slated to hear the matter on March 7.
“We had sent them notices last month, asking them not to make baseless allegations against the company. But they held a press conference on February 26 and levelled allegations against us. Thus, we filed a suit immediately on February 27,” a company spokesperson told The Hindu .
The suit was filed against the AAP, the party’s Maharashtra convenor Anjali Damania, spokesperson and secretary of Maharashtra unit Preeti Sharma-Menon and party member Satish Jain.
The party previously held a press conference on February 20, about the purported power scam in Mumbai. It alleged that the company was involved in a scam related to power distribution in the city, and that its practices led to inflated bills for the customers.
The company sent a notice to the AAP on February 21, seeking apology for its comments. It also sought removal of defamatory material from its website.
“We need hardly mention that you as members of political party AAP ought to have exercised due care and caution and provided information to the public after fully apprising yourselves of the true and correct facts and based on irrefutable evidence. However, you have without verifying, understanding or making any attempt to understand the above facts and issues involved, chose to deliberately spread falsehood, and disinformation to the media and public at large with an oblique motive to gain political mileage,” the notice said.
