Union Minister Smriti Irani sent a legal notice to three Congress leaders and their party for alleging that her 18-year-old daughter was running an “illegal bar” in Goa.
Opposition party’s Pawan Khera, Jairam Ramesh and Netta D’ Souza have been sent the legal notice.
The Union Minister has sought a written unconditional apology and withdrawal of allegations against her daughter with immediate effect from the Congress.
“The false allegations were intended to hurt the reputation of our client as a minister and a person in public life, and also to outrage her modesty and that of her daughter,” read the notice from the Minister.
The notice affirmed that Zoish Irani, the minister’s daughter, has never been involved in “running” a bar in Goa.
“The insistence of addressees to invoke value systems of our client with a reference to her ‘sanskar’ is an effort to make our client and her young daughter social outcasts by proclaiming that by the act of ‘running’ a bar our client and her young daughter are women of disrepute,” it said.
At a press conference on Saturday, Smriti Irani dared the party to show proof of any wrongdoing, adding that she will seek answers “in the court of law, and the court of people”.
In a statement, the lawyer of Smriti Irani’s daughter has said his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa and has not received any show cause notice from any authority whatsoever as alleged.
The Congress has on the other hand shared a copy of the show cause notice given to the bar and alleged that the excise official who gave the notice is reportedly being transferred after pressure from authorities.
Party spokesperson Pawan Khera has claimed that the licence for the bar has been taken in the name of a person who has been dead for over a year.
