Srinagar, Sept 29: Jammu and Kashmir government Wednesday filed a defamation suit against the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Nizamuddin Bhat and chief spokesman Naeem Akhtar for accusing Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah of receiving kickbacks in the allotment of Rattle Hydroelectric project.
Official sources said the public prosecutor; Abdul Aziz Teli filed criminal defamation case against the PDP MLA from Bandipora and PDP spokesperson before Principal District and Sessions Judge Bansi Lal Bhat here.
Sources said the Public Prosecutor also filed another criminal defamation case under similar provisions of law against the world-renowned cardiologist Dr Fayaz Shawl, who is presently Director Interventional Cardiology at Washington Adventist Hospital in USA.
The prosecution has sought trial of the PDP leaders under section-499 (defamation) and section-500 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), read with Section 198-B of Jammu and Kashmir Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for levelling “false and baseless” accusations against the Chief Minister that he received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 500 crore in Rattle Power project.
The judge has issued notices to the PDP leaders.
On Aug 25, in a scathing attack on the Chief Minister, the opposition PDP leaders at a press briefing accused him of having received Rs 500 crore as kickbacks in the Rattle hydroelectric project besides constructing Rs 20 crore worth private residence at the cost of public exchequer.
The party alleged that Omar had made one-time withdrawal of Rs 26 crore from the chief minister’s secret fund without accountability and even accused him of shifting architectural grandeur from the famed Toshkhana here to his residential house.
Accusing the government of taking advantage of the prevailing unrest in Kashmir, the senior PDP leader Nizam-ud-din Bhat had said: “We had no choice but to expose the misdeeds of the Chief Minister. On one hand our future generation is being made target of bullets and on the other, the state government and the Chief Minister is busy looting the state resources and the funds received by the government from the centre under different centrally sponsored schemes and projects.”
“They (NC) have been doing this for the personal gains. Now the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, has recently received kickback of around Rs 500 crore in the construction of the Rattle power project,” Bhat alleged.
The 690 megawatt Rattle power project is being constructed on river Chenab in Kishtwar district of Jammu at the cost of Rs 5000 crore.
To be constructed by the Hyderabad based company GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited, the project has been allotted by the state government on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis for a period of 35 years, following which it will be transferred to the state on the payment of Rs 380 crore.
Bhat had also claimed Dr Shawl’s hopes of setting up a hospital in his hometown in Srinagar had been shattered by the state government. He had said the government scuttled his project at the last minute and some officials even demanded a bribe from him.
Dr Shawl had also alleged that the government threw a spanner in the work to construct a Cardiology Hospital.
Shawl, finally abandoned his ‘dream project’ proposed to come up here, and has returned to America.
Shawl had alleged that junior Housing and Urban Development Minister in the Omar Abdullah Government, Nasir Aslam Wani initially gave approval for the project but just before the work was to commence in the first week of June, he was told that construction was barred on that site.
Although Omar chose not to respond to the allegations himself, Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather had said that Chief Minister decided to file criminal and civil cases against the PDP leaders. The PDP leaders chose not to apologise and will now face the court.
The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah last month sent a legal notice for defamation to Nizamuddin Bhat and Naeem Akhtar for levelling charges of corruption against him.
The defamation notice was sent through Omar’s lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a senior Congress leader and former additional solicitor general of India.
The notice, terming the charges ‘baseless, fabricated, concocted, frivolous, false and defamatory’, called upon Bhat and Andrabi to publicly apologise and withdraw the allegations made against Omar within seven days failing which he will be constrained to initiate appropriate legal proceedings against them.

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