Sanjay Nirupam slaps legal notice on Vinod Rai, wants unconditional apology

Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam on Monday slapped a legal notice on ex-CAG Vinod Rai accusing him of defamation and threatened to launch criminal proceedings if he did not apologise for remarks that the MP had asked the former chief auditor to drop Manmohan Singh's name from 2G report.

In the notice, Nirupam's lawyer asked Rai to "tender an unconditional apology" in writing within 15 days of the receipt of the notice stating that imputations made by him against the Congress leader were "baseless, false and concocted".

"Failing which I have strict instructions to initiate appropriate proceedings against you, including criminal proceedings against you at your cost and peril," he said in the notice.

The former Congress MP also took strong objection to Rai's remarks that Congress MPs had used unparliamentary language in the PAC against the CAG when he was not present, which forced the Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi to send a written complaint to the Speaker about Nirupam.

Nirupam's lawyer has accused Rai of intentionally trying to "defame" the Congress leader and harm his reputation with "motive to sensationalise false, contrived and concocted facts" about persons in public life, including Nirupam for "making personal pecuniary gains" and to boost sale of his book.

"The imputations made by you in the electronic and print media have deeply dented reputation of my client in their estimation and they have started avoiding him. The reputation of my client has taken an irreparable and heavy toll due to your defamatory imputations," the lawyer said in the notice.