Lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai withdrew his defamation suit filed against Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra before the Delhi high court.
“Learned counsel for the plaintiff upon instructions seeks permission to withdraw the suit, the suit is dismissed as withdrawn,” a bench of justice Prateek Jalan said in the order.
The withdrawal of suit against Mahua comes a day after Dehadrai assured before a coordinate bench that he will not make any allegations against Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Pinaki Misra’s being involved in hatching a criminal conspiracy against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, till August 12.
In his suit, Dehadrai sought for restraining Moitra from making allegedly defamatory statements against him on social media platforms and using allegedly derogatory terms for him asserting that the TMC leader had embarked a ceaseless campaign of slander and abuse, utilising various social media platforms and mainstream media outlets after he had filed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) complaint against her on October 14.
To be sure, the high court while expressing displeasure regarding the lawyer making statements in media pursuant to issuance of summons in his suit had remarked on April 8 that Moitra had the right to defend herself in public domain with regards to the cash for query allegations which were being levelled against her by her estranged friend and lawyer Dehadrai as long as her statements are not objectively false.
During the hearing, Dehadrai represented through advocate Raghav Awasthi submitted that his client was ready to withdraw the suit subject to the TMC leader making a statement that she would not make “palpably false” statements against him.
Considering Awasthi’s proposal, Justice Jalan remarked that Dehadrai’s suggestion was positive and thus recommended the counsels to arrive at an agreed wording of the order which he could pass, adding that issues between the parties was getting escalated and they should figure out a better way to resolve the same.
