This is how Bagga's lawyer put it: 'Please note that our client has specifically instructed us to only demand a sum of Re.1/- from you towards civil defamation compensation considering that you are already a student studying on the hard-earned taxpayers' money.'
New Delhi: If you thought the supposed sexual allegation saga of BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was over, it wasn’t. Now he has served a legal notice to former JNU student leader Shehla Rashid, urging her to apologise for her ‘defamatory’ tweets, failing which Bagga will sue her for civil defamation, albeit for a token demanded as damages: Re 1.
It all started where Bengaluru-based Jwala Gurunath accused Bagga of molestation while slapping him with Sections of the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act too. This was challenged by Bagga in a court, which found merit in his argument that the allegations were false and baseless. The court directed Gurunath’s FIR to be quashed.
Now, with a sudden surge of #MeToo in the country, the issue has been resurrected and peddled afresh. Shehla Rashid perhaps couldn’t have let the opportunity of politicking over the sensitive issue go. She tweeted on October 25, “Now, Ms. Deshmukh, if you are satisfied, can I please ask you to support Dr.Jwala Gurunath who had filed a case of sexual harassment against BJP Spokesperson Tajinder Bagga?"
When Bagga objected to it, she refused to apologise. The BJP spokesperson gave her three days to withdraw the tweet, failing which, he said, he would sue her. In fact, Bagga substantiated his claims with the text of the court order as well. Today, he has also served her a legal notice for failing to get an apology.
My advocate sh sent a legal notice to Ms pic.twitter.com/U35MSp2cGa
— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga)Bagga’s notice reads: “You, being a Ph.D. Scholar and having already gone through the said Judgment dated 14.07.2016, were well aware about (sic) the true and correct facts of the matter, however, just to tarnish and besmirch the highly held reputation and standing of Our Client as a reputed politician, you diabolically and viciously resorted to the aforesaid extremely derogatory, concocted and defamatory tweets against Our Client, which are ex-facie defamatory by their very tone and tenor and which are causing enormous harm and injury to his reputation.”
But in this notice threatening Rashid of a civil defamation, Bagga didn’t leave the opportunity to take a dig at her. This is his lawyer’s lingo: “Please note that our client has specifically instructed us to only demand a sum of Re.1/- from you towards civil defamation compensation considering that you are already a student studying on the hard-earned taxpayers' money.”
Since the morning, Rashid has tweeted or retweeted at least 9 posts, but she has so far been silent on the said case. Whereas Bagga is very clear—it’s less about a lawsuit and more about his personal dignity.
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