HC issues notice to Congress spokesman after he accused Jaitley

Gujarat, Dec 18: A notice was issued to Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi by the Gujarat High Court on Monday.

The notice was issued in the defamation case of Rs 5,000 filed by Reliance Anil Ambani group against him.
The defamation suit, filed on December 15, had accused Singhvi of making "false, defamatory and libelous statements".

Singhvi had, on November 30, attacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, for "fooling" people by claiming the government had not waived loans of big defaulters.

Alleging that the Centre had written off Rs 1.88 lakh crore debt of wilful defaulters, he had said: "We all know that top 50 corporates owe Rs 8.35 lakh crore to banks and out of those, three top Gujarat-based companies -- Reliance (Anil Ambani Group), Adani and Essar -- owe Rs 3 lakh crore."

He had contended that Jaitley, instead of declaring these liabilities as NPAs, was "trying to help the defaulter with further defence contracts like the Rafale deal".

The joint venture between Reliance Aerostructure Ltd and Dassault Aviation is a private agreement between two companies and has nothing to do with the government was clarified by Reliance.