HC restrains Vijayvargiya over defamatory statements against Abhishek Banerjee

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court has issued an order of injunction restraining Kailash Vijayvargiya, national general secretary of the BJP, asking him to refrain from making defamatory statements against TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.

Vijayvargiya had alleged that Banerjee was responsible for deaths of 12 people due to illicit liquor and was linked to cattle and arms smuggling along with illegal coal extraction.

The High Court observed that such defamatory statements by picking out a single individual amounted to disparagement and that Vijayvargiya had failed to provide any justification for such allegations.

On November 28, around 12 people had died after consuming illicit liquor at Chowdhurypara village in Nadia's Shantipur. After the incident, Vijayvargiya commented that Abhishek was making money from the sale of illicit country liquor and was directly responsible for the death of those 12 persons. Such malicious statements of Vijayvargiya were published in newspapers, news channels and on the Internet.

On December 1, the advocates of Abhishek Banerjee issued a cease and desist notice to Vijayvargiya, refraining him from making and circulating defamatory statements against Abhishek and also tender an unconditional apology. However, Vijayvargiya failed to give a reply to the letter.

On December 5, Abhishek's advocates instituted a suit against Vijayvargiya along with an injunction application before the High Court.