Smriti Irani gets legal notice from Congress for ‘malicious’ charge against charitable trust

New Delhi: Congress in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday issued a legal notice to Union Minister Smriti Irani over her "false and malicious" allegation that Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust has grabbed land of farmers in Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Rahul Gandhi.

In the notice, Irani has been accused of making "false and malicious" allegations against RGCT as also the Congress party in her two public utterances.

The lawyer of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee told Irani that the Congress party has been accused by her of maintaining silence when an organisation closely linked to the party is alleged to have been a land grabber which has usurped agricultural lands belonging to farmers in Amethi.

Detailing the facts of the case, the lawyer has told the Union Minister that "by attacking this entire process of transfer of land to our clients, the effect is to undermine and declared as mala fide a transaction sanctified by the court."

Asking the Union Minister to cease and desist from making any such imputations against the party, the lawyer Prashanta Chandra Sen told her that his client will have "no option" but to pursue appropriate legal remedies, both civil and criminal, if she failed to do so.

Irani had unsuccessfully contested against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in the last Lok Sabha polls.