Nawsad Siddique files defamation suit against Trinamool MLA

Kolkata: Nawsad Siddique, the lone representative of All India Secular Front (AISF), has filed a defamation suit against Trinamool Congress legislator Saukat Molla over the latter’s recent controversial comments describing Siddique as a terrorist.

While Siddique is an MLA from Bhangar, Molla is a legislator from Canning (East), with both constituencies coming under the South 24 Parganas district.

The constituencies have a notorious track record of witnessing frequent political clashes between the supporters of the two parties and at times between two groups of the ruling party.

The petition has been filed at the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) in Kolkata.

In the petition, Siddique's counsel has claimed that the comments by Molla referring to Siddique as a “terrorist” were “baseless, motivated and defamatory for the image of an elected public representative”.

Siddique’s counsel has also argued that such defamatory comments not only malign the image of an elected public representative but also weaken the base of any democratic system.

The petition has been admitted by the court of ACJM.

It is learnt that a summons will be issued to Molla to be present at the court on a specified date and get his argument recorded.

Reacting to the development, Molla told media persons that he would give the reply to the defamation suit in the appropriate legal forum.

Siddique got elected from Bhangar in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, when AISF was part of the bigger alliance with Congress and CPI(M)-led Left Front.

Molla is the two-time MLA from adjacent Canning (East) and also the organisational in charge of Trinamool Congress for Bhangar. He was associated with the CPI(M) for a long time and was known as an extremely close confidant of strongman Abdur Razzak Molla, the former Minister for Land and Land Reforms in the previous Left Front regime. Saukat Molla later shifted to Trinamool Congress and became an MLA for the first time from Canning (East) in the 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls.