Union Minister Smriti Irani sends legal notice to three Congress leaders over Goa bar row

Union Minister Smriti Irani has sent a legal notice to three Congress leaders over the Goa bar row.

Union Minister Smriti Irani has sent a legal notice to three Congress leaders - Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh and Netta D’Souza and the Congress party for ‘conspiring to launch a series of scathing and belligerent personal attacks with the oblique motive to malign, defame and injure’. This comes a day after rebutting allegations against her daughter over the ownership of a restaurant in Goa.

“All of you have conspired with each other and with other unknown individuals/organizations to launch a series of scathing and belligerent personal attacks against Our Client, with the oblique motive to malign, defame and injure our client and her family's reputation based on a series of blatant falsehoods and gross misrepresentations,” the notice reads.

“She has never applied for any license for ‘running’ any bar or for any business enterprise. Moreover, she has not been served with any show cause notice from Excise Department, Goa till date,” it said, accusing the Congress and its leaders of having “stooped to a new low, morally and ethically, by attacking our client's 18-year-old daughter, who is at the threshold of a new chapter of her life pursuing her professional aspirations”.

The BJP MP had addressed the media on Saturday afternoon Congress leader Pawan Khera alleged that Irani's daughter Zoish has been allegedly running a restaurant in Goa, where the bar is functioning with a 'fake licence'. Khera alleged corruption charges against the minister and said that the license was procured by Smriti Irani's daughter in the name of a person who died 13 months ago.

At the press conference, an emotional and teary-eyed Irani refuted the grand old party's allegations, saying that her daughter was being targeted because “her mother speaks against the Gandhis”.

"Two middle-aged Congress men are responsible for the character assassination of an 18-year-old girl. Her only fault is that her mother talks about Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi," the firebrand MP had said, an apparent reference to Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh.

“I will seek answers in the court of law and in the court of people,” she said, adding that her team will send legal notices to Ramesh and Khera.