Omar getting top lawyers to sue PDP

‘They’ll soon taste consequences of unfounded accusations’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Aug 27: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is hiring the country’s leading lawyers to file and pursue a suit of defamation against the opposition PDP MLAs who had, earlier this week, charged him with accepting bribe money of Rs 500 Crore on account of allotment of 690 mw Rattle Hydroelectric power project. Preparations are expeditiously underway to file the libel suit in Jammu & Kashmir High Court next week.

“They (PDP) had been”, Chief Minister told this correspondent, “in the habit of leveling unsubstantiated accusations from day one of my government. Last year, they did it and ate the humble pie within days. This year, we ignored a number of frivolous allegations from them. But, enough is enough. I have taken this baseless accusation of Rs 500 Crore kickbacks extremely seriously and decided to file against them a civil and criminal suit of defamation in J&K High Court”.

Chief Minister said that preparations were underway to file the libel suit against the PDP leaders, who had leveled the allegation against him at a news conference here on August 25th, in J&K High Court next week. He revealed that he was presently in touch with some of the top ranking lawyers of the country in New Delhi who would be pursuing his private lawsuit. “I am determined to put an end to their character assassination campaign as this time around they have crossed all limits. I think the best course would be to file and pursue a defamation suit. I am taking this fight to its logical conclusion at any cost”, Omar asserted. He said that all those who had leveled the “unfounded allegation” would soon taste the consequences of sullying the image of political leaders.

He claimed that there was “not an iota of truth” in the PDP leaders’ accusation as entire process of allotment of the power project, according to him, was “completely transparent and clean”. He said that even the second lowest bidder, Tata Power, had sent him a letter of appreciation while appreciating transparency and cleanliness of the process and aspiring to continuously participate in the forthcoming competitions.

Omar strongly refuted the allegation of having drawn and swindled ‘secret funds worth Rs 26 Crore” in the last few weeks. He claimed that total volume of the unaccountable funds available with J&K Chief Minister for a calendar year was not even half of what the PDP MLAs had mentioned.

Meanwhile, informed sources said, PDP top brass was also discussing Chief Minister’s threat of filing a defamation suit with a number of legal luminaries, including senior PDP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig. Baig is understood to have opined that a criminal suit was not maintainable in this particular case and the civil one could be comfortably contested in the court of law.

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