 "Defamation case against Sanjay Singh aimed to disrupt Delhi campaign: AAP")
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Goa on Wednesday said that the defamation lawsuit filed against party leader Sanjay Singh by Pramod Sawant’s wife, Sulakshana, was an attempt to keep him from the upcoming Delhi assembly election campaign.
The Delhi elections are expected to take place by the end of January or early February 2025, with a likely triangular contest between the ruling AAP, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Congress.
Sulakshana Sawant filed the defamation suit against Sanjay Singh on Tuesday at a court in Bicholim, North Goa, demanding Rs 100 crore in damages for allegedly implicating her in the cash-for-jobs scandal.
The court has issued a notice to Singh, requesting his response by January 10, 2025. Singh, a Rajya Sabha member, recently made accusations against Sulakshana Sawant during a press conference in Delhi.
At a press briefing in Goa, AAP’s Goa unit general secretary Valmiki Naik argued that the case was a strategy to waste Singh’s time, as he is a prominent campaigner for the Delhi elections.
“Delhi assembly elections are scheduled to be held by the end of January or beginning of February next year, for which campaigning is going on. Singh is one of the top three campaigners of the party and they want to waste his time by framing him in such cases,” Naik said.
Naik further said that the case was filed in Bicholim, Goa, requiring Singh to travel for hearings, even though the press conference took place in New Delhi.
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“We don’t know how long this case will go on, but the complainant will have to present evidence before the court about what Singh said and how it amounts to her defamation,” he said. Naik further suggested that the lawsuit was a diversion from the escape of land grab suspect Siddiqui Suleman Khan from the crime branch’s custody.
[With agency inputs]