Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari filed a defamation suit against Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari in the Metropolitan Magistrate Court here on Thursday for “falsely implicating” him in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam.
“This is the conspiracy of the Congress to malign me,” Mr. Gadkari told journalists outside the court.
Mr. Tewari had alleged that Mr. Gadkari owned a benami flat in the Society. He had said that Ajay Sancheti, a close aide of Mr. Gadkari, owned a benami flat, booked in the name of his driver.
“The accused [Mr. Tewari] has uttered defamatory falsehoods against the complainant [Mr. Gadkari] maliciously and recklessly, knowing the same to be false,” said a petition submitted by Mr. Gadkari's lawyer in the court. The petition, filed under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, said Mr. Gadkari had earlier sent a legal notice to Mr. Tewari, asking him to tender an unconditional apology, but Mr. Tewari failed to do so.
If he is found guilty, Mr. Tewari may serve up to two years in jail.
