The legal notice claimed Angkita Dutta tarnished IYC national president BV Srinivas' image publicly with malicious intent.
Angkita Dutta with AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik. (angkitadutta/Twitter)
The Legal Cell of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) has shot a notice of defamation to Assam’s Youth Congress president Angkita Dutta for allegedly abusing and tarnishing the IYC national president BV Srinivas’ image publicly with malicious intent.
The legal notice was issued after a series of tweets, replies, retweets, and other statements issued by Angkita Dutta about Srinivas, who hails from the Shivamogga district of Karnataka.
Dutta, on 18 April, took to social media to level allegations of sexism against Srinivas, but did not directly name him then.
She posted: “How can a sexist and chauvinistic lead @IYC torture and demean a woman every single time. What happened to @priyankagandhi ladki hoon ladk Shakti hoon [sic].”
How can a sexist and chauvinistic lead @IYC torture and demean a woman every single time. What happened to @priyankagandhi ladki hoon ladk Shakti hoon https://t.co/opLpmcLLbh
— Dr Angkita Dutta (@angkitadutta) April 18, 2023
Dutta alleged that IYC chief Srinivas BV was causing her mental harassment and humiliation as she was a woman.
She added that he recently roped in Assam IYC secretary Vardhan Yadhav and both of them had been jointly campaigning and lobbying against her to get her thrown out of the IYC.
She also alleged that she had brought this matter to the notice of the IYC general secretary and also Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
But no inquiry or action was initiated against both Srinivas or Vardhan Yadav despite her complaints, she said.
@IYC President @srinivasiyc has continually harnessed me and was discriminating on the basis of my gender. My values and education doesn’t allow me anymore. The leadership has played deaf ears despite bring front of them MANY TIMES @RahulGandhi @kcvenugopalmp @priyankagandhi
— Dr Angkita Dutta (@angkitadutta) April 18, 2023
Dutta also alleged that she met Srinivas at the Mayfair Hotel during the Congress’ Raipur plenary session in Chhattisgarh in February. She was entering the hotel to meet party seniors while Srinivas was coming out.
As they exchanged pleasantries and crossed each other, Srinivas allegedly asked her if she was drunk, and what alcohol she had consumed — vodka or tequila. Srinivas also is said to have asked Dutta if she texted after drinking.
Dutta alleged that Srinivas used to undermine her because of her gender.
She said she was sidelined on several instances, or kept uninformed about important developments.
They also did not involve her in decision-making, despite she being the president of the State IYC unit, Dutta alleged.
She also said Srinivas engaged Vardhan Yadav and made posters of hers along with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma — a BJP leader — and initiated a campaign on social media lobbying against her.
They claimed she was all set to join the BJP to avoid being investigated by the ED and the CBI in the Saradha Chit Fund case, she said.
Dutta added that she even forwarded the posters to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, but no action was initiated against Srinivas or Vardhan Yadav.
The replies of true congress man when Vardhan and @srinivas is giving them instructions by using their power. Please note @RahulGandhi @priyankagandhi pic.twitter.com/B4fsCf2ud7
— Dr Angkita Dutta (@angkitadutta) April 18, 2023
Instead, Dutta was served a notice by the IYC Legal Cell. It said in the notice: “Dutta resorted to using utterly unparliamentary, undignified, defamatory, malicious words against Srinivas BV and has levelled totally sexist, chauvinistic, false, frivolous, allegations against him. The said tweet/statement has been quoted and circulated on a very large scale now.”
Drafted by the IYC Legal Cell national chairman Roopesh Singh Bhadauria, the notice to Dutta also said: “It is also a matter of public knowledge that your name has come up in the Saradha Chit Fund scam and in ED/PMLA cases. It is also reliably learnt that you are in constant touch with Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, and you have been undertaking this exercise of maligning and defaming simply to create an atmosphere of leaving the Congress party with the objective of joining the BJP, the ruling dispensation at the state and the Centre and consequently to have a closure of these cases.
It added: “The entire exercise of publicly maligning and defaming Srinivas is politically motivated and is totally false.”
Soon after issuing the defamation notice to Dutta, Srinivas tweeted the images of his legal notice.
He said in the post that there was a famous saying: “When one person makes an accusation, check to be sure he himself is not the guilty one. Sometimes it is those whose case is weak who make the most clamour.”
He added in the tweet: “Whoever is found indulged in propagating/peddling false & defamatory content will be held liable under the relevant laws & will be held accountable for their acts. Sorry for not being able to answer BJP and their Sponsored stooges earlier because of the marathon election campaign in Karnataka, where BJP is all set to lose badly. No diversion can save the BJP in the state of Karnataka. [sic]”
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴:-
“When one person makes an accusation, check to be sure he himself is not the guilty one. Sometimes it is those whose case is weak who make the most clamour.”
Whoever is found indulged in propagating/peddling false & defamatory… https://t.co/A41j6nvn8o pic.twitter.com/aewplKzI1w
— Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) April 18, 2023
In her response to the legal notice from the IYC, Dutta said she was disappointed with the party’s leadership for not taking any action against Srinivas or Vardhan Yadav.
She also said that her harassment started after she raised questions against Srinivas and his functionaries in the IYC.
She said that she was feeling appalled as the organisation she was working for had let her down, and that she would fight it legally.
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