Tripura Congress leader faces defamation suit, eviction notice after leveling charges against Minister

File photo of Sudip Roy Barman | Photo Credit: PTI

Former Tripura Minister and Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman was slapped with a defamation suit and a notice to vacate from the MLA hostel days after he raised corruption charges against State Tribal Welfare Minister Bikash Debbarma and a senior government official in the Assembly. State Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha, who has also been named in the defamation case, said the actions are politically motivated.

Mr. Barman had raised corruption charges against the Minister and an officer on special duty (OSD) in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), taking their names in the Assembly. He has raised apprehensions of corruption in a ₹1,400 crore World Bank-funded project for the socioeconomic development of tribal communities. Mr. Debbarma was accused of building several houses in Tripura, purchasing an apartment in Delhi and running two petrol pumps in Tripura.

On Saturday, Paramananda Sarkar Banerjee, an OSD in the CMO, filed a defamation suit in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), West Tripura, claiming that the charges leveled by Mr. Barman, supported by Mr. Saha and reported by a leading vernacular daily were directed at him. The retired engineer, who was appointed as OSD on a contract basis on July 22, 2022, alleged that the charges against him were malicious, false and made with ill motives.

Mr. Debbarma has also threatened to file a defamation suit against Mr. Barman. The Minister, who declared assets worth ₹3.5 lakh in his election affidavit, allegedly owned more properties in less than two years of becoming a Minister.

Further, the state Assembly secretariat has issued an eviction notice to Mr. Barman, asking him to vacate from the MLA Hostel No. 1 in a month’s time. An official assembly, however, clarified that Mr. Barman can apply for accommodation in the new MLA Hostel as the old MLA Hostel, where he resides now, will be demolished for construction of a new housing block.

The Congress described the actions as politically motivated. Party State unit president Asish Kumar Saha on Sunday said the party would continue to highlight issues of “financial corruption and misgovernance.”