Assam Court Bars Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi From Commenting On Subsidy Row Until Next Hearing

An Assam court has retrained Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi from making any statement about the alleged subsidy row involving Chief Minister Himanta Sarma's wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma.

Guwahati: An Assam court has barred Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi from making any comments in the alleged Rs 10 crore subsidy row involving Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma until the next hearing of the case on November 9.

While hearing the Rs 10 crore defamation suit filed by Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, the court granted an ad-interim temporary injunction against Gaurav Gogoi, restraining him from making any statement, uploading, circulating and disseminating any news in furtherance of the statements he made earlier this month on X (formerly Twitter), alleging that Riniki Bhuyan Sarma’s firm, Pride East Entertainments Private Limited, received Rs 10 crore as subsidy from the Central government.

Riniki Bhuyan Sarma in her petition stated that her company Pride East Entertainments Private Limited did not receive a single penny from the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, against the grant amount of Rs 10 crore. Bhuyan Sarma further stated that despite the approval of the grant, her company in May 2023 chose not to go ahead with the project which is evident from the Ministry of Food Processing Industries’ show cause notice on May 22, 2023, and subsequent email on September 5, 2023.

“In the light of all the discussion, this court, without discussing the merits of the dispute, finds that the petitioner’s firm has not received the grant of Rs 10 crore even though the said amount was approved by the government under the scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana. In the backdrop of the discussion, this court finds that the views of Gaurav Gogoi, which were allegedly posted on X on September 12, 2023 and September 13, 2023,  appears to be defamatory in nature and that fact forces this court to presume that the petitioner is having a strong prima-facie case upon which the court may put the same for trial and there is every possibility that the petitioner may succeed in her claim, if the petitioner establishes her claim by adducing trustworthy and cogent evidence in the later stage,” the court order read.

After a series of tweets by Gaurav Gogoi on microblogging site X, alleging that Chief Minister Sarma used his influence to help his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma’s firm Pride East Entertainments Private Limited get Rs 10 crore as part of credit linked subsidy, Bhuyan Sarma on September 22 filed a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Gogoi.