Bihar Congress MLC Prem Chandra Mishra on Tuesday sent a legal notice to state Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, who had claimed that Congress and RJD MLAs have not made any contribution to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund (CMRF).
In a tweet on Monday, Modi had said that the MLAs of RJD and Congress have not contributed a single rupee to the CMRF.
"I had asked Sushil Modi to tender an apology to the Congress leaders over his remark and delete his untrue tweets. However, he has not withdrawn the tweets or tendered any apologies. Therefore, I have sent a legal notice to Sushil Modi," said Mishra in a video message.
Mishra said that Sushil Modi's remark that Congress MLAs have not contributed anything to the Chief Minister Relief Fund are "blatant lies".
"Through the legal notice sent to Sushil Modi, I have asked him how he can lie about Chief Minister Relief Fund despite being the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister of the state, that too at a time of such crisis," he said.
The legal notice said that the allegations made by Modi are "baseless" and with "mala fide intentions" to defame the Congress leaders and added that the donation has become a "political issue" for him.
"Your actions amount to the commission of the offence of the defamation under Section 499 (defamation) as well as are actionable by the way of a civil proceeding," the notice said.
"That my client, being of a forgiving disposition, is willing to compound your offence if you immediately withdraw your defamatory and untrue tweet and issue a public apology through the same forum, failing which I have the instructions to initiate civil and criminal proceedings as per the law of the land," it added.
Mishra said that Bihar Youth Congress vice president Kumar Rohit has also filed a complaint to the Superintendent of Police over Sushil Modi's remark and sought actions against him.
( With inputs from ANI )