Accusing Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of levelling ‘malicious lies’ against the Badal family during a debate event at Ludhiana’s Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday sent a legal notice to Mr. Mann, asking him to tender an unconditional apology within five days.
Mr. Badal accused the Chief Minister of “deliberately making an outlandish statement on November 1 at a so-called one-man debate held in PAU, Ludhiana that the Badal family had compromised Punjab’s river water interests for personal gains.”
In the notice, Mr. Badal said that Mr. Mann had claimed that a private canal was dug up to provide water to irrigate the Badal family’s lands in Balsar village in Haryana, and the Chief Minister resorted to damaging the reputation of the Badal family by making wild allegations about the family’s transport business.
“All this had been done by the Chief Minister in a pre-planned manner with the sole objective to malign the personal, social and political reputation of the Badal family,” said Mr. Badal in the notice, asking Mr. Mann to tender an unconditional apology within five days of receipt of the notice or face a defamation case in the matter.
