Agartala, Feb 15 (PTI) CPI(M) Tripura unit secretary Jitendra Chowdhury was served a legal notice by the BJP on Tuesday for levelling allegations of extortion from beneficiaries of government schemes.

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Biswajit Debnath, the convener of Tripura's BJP legal cell, in a notice said, apart from being “totally general and unspecific”, the allegations are prima facie aimed at defaming the present ministry led by Biplab Kumar Deb and “grossly misleading” the general public.

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“You have made sacrilegious allegations against unidentified members of the State Cabinet…Notice is hereby given to you to immediately take back your comments forthwith in default whereof appropriate legal action will be taken against you entailing civil and criminal consequence,” Debnath said.

The opposition CPIM) leader and former MP, however, said he had not targeted any particular minister.

Condemning the allegations as “baseless”, Information and Cultural Affairs (ICA) Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said at a press conference, that the CPI(M) leader should substantiate it or the government will take legal action.

Asserting that he had not levelled the allegation against any particular minister, Jitendra Chowdhury said, “what I had said is that there were media reports, video footage on social media and rumours about the collection of commission from beneficiaries.

“Don't scare me … Ask the Law Department to file a case. It will be easy for me. The ministers will have to appear before the court to say how their wealth has swelled manifolds in the past 47 months.”

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)