NEW DELHI: The instant affront which the BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya took against an offending social media post, accusing him of sexual misconduct, has borne fruit.
A Facebook post by one Santanu Sinha accused Amit Malviya and other BJP leaders of being lured with sexual favours in exchange for top BJP leadership position in Bengal on June 7, 2024.
The very next day an indignant Malviya went into offensive, serving a 10-crore defamation legal notice to Sinha for his wild allegations, asking Santanu not just to remove the social media post but also to tender an unconditional apology.
The legal notice made the mention that the social media post by Santanu Sinha was intended to “harm the reputation” of Malviya through “false and defamatory” allegations.
Santanu was asked to remove the post within three days.
Meanwhile, Indian National Congress tried to draw political mileage out of it with its IT Cell chief Supriya Shrinate asking Malviya to step down from his post.
Before the three-day deadline expired, Santanu came to his knees to beg forgiveness, stating in a social media post that “if my post hurts Malviya…I do express my heartfelt sorrow for the same…”
In his defense Santanu said that his post was not to malign Malviya but to caution against the “honey trap” which could be set against him.
Further, Santanu’s social media “apology” stated: “It’s a great chagrin to me that the nastiest and most corrupted political party of the country, the Indian National Congress, being armed with a post in Bengali posted from my Facebook account is spreading hate campaign against Mr Amit Malviya and the Bharatiya Janata Party.”
“Since I have not written anything untoward in my post with a mission to malign anyone, I am not withdrawing the post…” concluded Santanu.
