Srinagar: Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Geelani has sued Delhi-based newspaper for publishing ‘a frivolous and fictitious story’ about him and has sought a compensation of rupees 50 crore.
The legal notice slapped on ‘The Times of India’ states that Geelani reserves right to take all the legal recourses — for defaming and disrupting him– against this newspaper and its officials who have deliberately attempted to defame him.
Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar said: ‘The Times of India’ in its March 14, 20014, edition has published a mischievous and baseless report about the senior pro-freedom leader, in which an attempt has been made to cause harm to his esteem, dignity and reputation.
Hurriyat had earlier announced that the amalgam would take legal action against the newspaper and its officials. The legal notice has been slapped on The Times of India, it’s general editor, editor and its reporter in Jammu and Kashmir, Saleem Pandith, through a prominent lawyer M S Reshi.
The defamation suit also demands a compensation of Rupees 50 crore for causing defamation.
In the legal notice, Reshi has said that his client is the Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference and at the same time chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat as well and he is a well known personality in the Asian sub-continent.
“He is a towering and respectable leader of Jammu and Kashmir and he is the leader of masses representing the sentiments of majority of people of Jammu and Kashmir,” his counsel noted.
The legal notice has challenged the ‘mischievous reporting’ of the newspaper that when Geelani was leaving to New Delhi for the treatment, “He was driven to the tarmac and taken towards the aircraft on a wheel chair but the 83 year old climbed up the stairs of the plane without support”.
Reshi also termed the report that “Geelani has nominated his son as his successor, which has disappointed the hardcore section of the party” as baseless.
Reshi in the notice states that the report was baseless and was a deliberate attempt to defame Geelani and his family. “We will take every possible step to bring them in the court of law for what they have done to harm the image of Geelani,” the spokesman said.