Gujarat Congress leader slaps legal notice on CM

senior Gujarat leader Shaktisinh Gohil has slapped a legal notice of criminal and civil proceedings on Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani for "politically motivated" charges of engineering attacks on north Indian migrant workers in the state.

In the legal notice issued October 18, Gohil pointed to Rupani's statements before the media in Uttar Pradesh accusing him of instigating attacks on the north Indian workers, who were forced to flee Gujarat recently, and stated that it was BJP leaders and workers who were responsible for workers' migration.

The Congress leader, who is also party's Bihar in-charge as well as a spokesperson, told Rupani that, "As the Chief Minister, it is your duty to maintain law and order in Gujarat. Instead of making politically motivated statement against me in Uttar Pradesh, you should have taken action against me by filing an FIR."

Gohil said the government could not file an FIR against him or arrest him for it did not have any evidence of his involvement in the incidents.

Gohil also accused another BJP MLA from Prantij, Gajendrasinh, of taking out rallies and instigating crowds, besides youth BJP leader Vikas Patel and others running social media campaigns through Facebook and others.

The Congress leader said he was sending audio and video evidence to establish that BJP leaders and workers were responsible for the attacks. "I was not even there in Gujarat during the attacks and was in Bihar," Gohil said, adding that immediately on hearing about the incidents, he condemned them and appealed for peace.

Calling the Chief Minister's statements against him as a "deliberate attempt to tarnish my image to cause great political and social damage", he demanded that Rupani should publicly express his regrets for those allegations within two weeks.

--IANS

desai/prs