Prashant Kishor slapped with defamation suit by Bihar minister Ashok Choudhary
Patna, Jun 3 (PTI): Senior Bihar minister Ashok Choudhary on Tuesday filed a defamation suit against Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor for alleging that he had bribed Union minister Chirag Paswan to secure a Lok Sabha ticket for his daughter.
Choudhary, whose daughter Shambhavi is Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) MP from the reserved constituency of Samastipur, spoke to journalists at the civil court.
Kishor, however, said he cannot be intimidated by filing cases.
"After Prashant Kishor made objectionable remarks against my daughter and me, I sent him a legal notice, to which his reply was unsatisfactory. He clearly has no regret for what he had said," the JD(U) national general secretary said.
"I have therefore taken recourse to legal remedy. I challenged Prashant Kishor to prove that I had paid money to Chirag Paswan or withdraw his allegations with an apology. I am determined to take this fight to the Supreme Court, if the need arises," he added.
Choudhary described Kishor, a former poll strategist who had been briefly associated with the JD(U), as "a political trader, who has offered his services to parties of all hues for a fee".
"In contrast, we are purely in politics. I am myself a second-generation politician. My daughter is the youngest MP. Prashant Kishor is unable to digest this feat of a Dalit girl," alleged Choudhary, a key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Choudhary's late father Mahavir Choudhary had been a minister when the state was ruled by the Congress.
Kishor, who has been digging in his heels since Choudhary threatened him with legal action, struck a defiant note, maintaining "I am not a mafia who can be intimidated by filing cases".
"What I have said about Ashok Choudhary's daughter, has been for long talked about in villages across Bihar. He can slap as many cases against me as he pleases. I am not going to be cowed down. In a state, where a Panchayat mukhiya moves around with at least four gunmen, I have been travelling on foot without a single security personnel", the Jan Suraaj Party founder told reporters.
"When I have done no wrong, why should I worry? This government had got me picked up in the thick of night, by deploying personnel from 20 police stations. But they had to let me off," said Kishor.
He was referring to his arrest in January when he was on a fast unto death in support of candidates of an examination conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) demanding its cancellation.
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Double-decker electric bus gutted in fire at Kurla BEST depot
Mumbai (PTI): An empty double-decker electric bus was gutted in a fire during servicing at a BEST depot in Mumbai's Kurla area on Sunday, officials said, adding that nobody was injured.
The blaze broke out inside the Kurla BEST bus depot near Kanakia Building at 4.14 pm, according to preliminary information from the Mumbai Fire Brigade.
The parked bus was unoccupied at the time of the incident.
Fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control. The exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, they said.
No injuries were reported in the incident, officials added.
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking has hired 50 electric double-decker buses from Switch Mobility in its fleet of around 2,700 buses.
