GorkhaJanmuktiMorcha general secretary RoshanGiri today said a Darjeeling court has accepted a defamation suit filed by him against Kalimpong MLA HarkaBahadurChhetri on charges of misplaced allegations. According to Giri, last year in December, Chhetri went public accusing the GJM general secretary of asking for a 15 per cent cut from the construction work of a polytechnic college that is set to come up in Kalimpong.

Today, after receiving a court copy of Defamation Suit No.1/2016 from the civil judge (senior division), Giri briefed media persons by stating, “On December 18, 2015, he (Chhetri) had alleged that I had asked for a 15 per cent bribe from construction work of a polytechnic college in Kalimpong. This is baseless and completely false because I don’t even know the contractors who have been engaged nor when the tenders were floated.” The GJM general secretary alleged that the Kalimpong MLA had specifically said that UjjwalBiswas, the state technical education minister, had raised the bribe issue in the Assembly on December 17, 2015. “We have gone through the proceedings of the December 17 session in the Assembly and have found no evidence of the minister having raised such an issue,” Giri asserted. He said that Chhetri, who severed ties with the GJM in September 2015, was indulging in opportunistic politics to defame him and the party by making false allegations.