Dushyant Singh files defamation case against Jairam Ramesh, TV channel

Dushyant Singh

Weeks after the Congress produced documents alleging that Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s son MP Dushyant Singh had wrongly claimed Dholpur Palace as his own property while it belonged to the state government and also took compensation for a National Highways Authority of India project, Dushyant filed separate criminal cases of defamation against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and Times Now channel in a Dholpur court Tuesday.

The case has been filed under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code in the additional chief judicial magistrate court in Dholpur with a thick bunch of supporting documents. “One case is against Congress leader Jairam Ramesh who has been quoted in the print media saying that the Dholpur Palace does not belong to Dushyant Singh and alleged that he wrongly took compensation for an NHAI project. The other is against Times Now channel, its owner Vineet Jain and other directors and Arnab Goswami, on whose show Newshour, he had launched a tirade against Dushyant and made several baseless allegations,” Vivek Raj Singh Bajwa, Singh’s counsel told the Indian Express.

As the Opposition stepped up attack on Raje and her son for alleged dubious financial dealings with Lalit Modi, Ramesh had held a press conference in New Delhi where he produced documents claiming that Raje and Dushyant ‘forcibly’ and ‘illegally’ occupied the palace.

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The Congress had released documents, including revenue department records between 1955 and 2010 and a court statement of Raje’s estranged husband Hemant Singh, to claim that the Dholpur Palace is a government property and not a personal property of the Dholpur family. Ramesh had alleged that Niyant Heritage Hotels Pvt Ltd, owned by Raje, Dushyant, daughter-in-law Niharika Singh and Lalit Modi had taken possession of a Government of Rajasthan property, converted it into a private high-end luxury hotel and invested over Rs 100 crore in that.

Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami on his prime time show Newshour too had made similar allegations.