New Delhi: Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Srinivas B.V. has sent a criminal defamation notice to former president of Assam IYC Angkita Dutta.
The development, announced by the IYC, comes after Dutta took to Twitter to allege that the chief of the Congress’s youth wing had “mentally harassed” and “discriminated” against her. In a series of tweets Tuesday, Dutta accused Srinivas of discriminating against her on the basis of her gender. She further said that despite her complaints, no enquiry was conducted against him.
“What happened to Priyanka Gandhi’s Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon?”, asked Dutta, referring to a campaign launched by the Congress general secretary ahead of last year’s assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.
In another tweet, she wrote: “I had a lot of faith in Rahul Gandhi and went to Jammu during Bharat Jodo Yatra [led by him] to appraise him of Srinivas’ harassment and demeaning use of language towards me. It’s April now and still no enquiry against him”.
The IYC in Delhi has responded by pointing out that Dutta was questioned in the Sarada chit fund scam and was in “constant touch” with Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma.
“Dr. Dutta was appointed as Vice-President of Assam PYC (Pradesh Youth Congress) in June 2018 when Shri Kamrul Islam Chaudhary was PYC President. Later on, in accordance with resolution passed by IYC for 33% reservations for women in organisation, she was nominated as PYC Assam President in November 2021 and remained on the post till membership of IYC was announced in Assam to induct new leaders in the state organisation”, said the IYC in a statement.
Dutta, however, continues to identify as Assam IYC president on all her social media profiles.
The IYC statement further alleged that Dutta had stopped discharging her duties since elections for the state IYC were announced last year.
“Since her tenure was over, and after the declaration of State PYC election she was not discharging her duties competently, she started raising baseless allegations against National Secretary Vardhan Yadav, IYC in-charge of Assam PYC which were never fructified and she has constantly refrained herself from participating and cooperating with the inquiry committee set up by the IYC Leadership to probe the allegations made out by her. Such acts clearly reflects the falsity of the charges (sic)”, the statement said.
ThePrint reached both Angkita Dutta and Srinivas B.V. for comments on WhatsApp and Twitter, but received no response till the time of publication of this report.
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‘Will be held accountable for their acts’
Srinivas, however, issued a statement on Twitter Tuesday night.
“There is a famous saying — when one person makes an accusation, check to be sure he himself is not the guilty one. Sometimes it is those whose case is weak who make the most clamour. Whoever is found indulged in propagating/peddling false & defamatory content will be held liable under the relevant laws and will be held accountable for their acts (sic)”, said Srinivas.
He added: “Sorry for not being able to answer BJP and their Sponsored stooges earlier because of the marathon election campaign in Karnataka, where BJP is all set to lose badly. No diversion can save the BJP in the state of Karnataka.”
Srinivas has been IYC president since December 2020.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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