Srinagar, Aug 28 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Saturday sent a legal notice for defamation to opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Nizamuddin Bhat and spokesman Nayeem Akhtar Andrabi for levelling charges of corruption and misusing his position against him.
The defamation notice has been sent through Omar’s lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a senior advocate and former additional solicitor general of India.
The notice, terming the charges ‘baseless, fabricated, concocted, frivolous, false and defamatory’, calls upon Bhat and Andrabi to publicly apologise and withdraw the allegations made against Omar within seven days failing which he will be constrained to initiate appropriate legal proceedings against them.
At a press briefing here earlier this week, Bhat had charged the chief minister with taking kickbacks amounting to crores of rupees from a firm that had been allotted the contract for building a multi-crore hydro-electric power project in the state.
The allegations had also said Omar Abdullah was spending crores of rupees on his official residence in Srinagar.
Under the existing system in the state, a chief minister is allowed to retain for life the official residence he lives in during his tenure on reasons of security and threat perception.
