SWAPAN KR. PAUL Vs. ANAL ROY CHOWDHURY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Being aggrieved by the judgment and decree dated 06.02.2017 delivered in M.S. 21 of 2013, titled as Swapan Kr. Paul v. Anal Roy Chowdhury by the Civil Judge, Sr. Division, No.1, West Tripura, Agartala, this appeal has been preferred by the plaintiff. By the said judgment, the suit of the appellant for damages has been dismissed.

(2.) The brief facts as relevant to appreciate the grounds of the appeal are placed at the outset. The plaintiff claims to be a reputed businessman. He has been successfully carrying business of transportation and for such reputation, he was engaged as the transport contractor by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd., ONGC in short, Food Corporation of India Ltd., FCI in short and other government departments. That apart, the plaintiff is the Managing Director of M/S. Rajarshi Motors Private Ltd. which deals in the vehicles manufactured by Tata Motors Ltd. According to the plaintiff, the yearly financial transaction concerning their business, business of the plaintiff and his family members, is estimated at around Rs.100 crores during the financial year 2011-2012. The plaintiff has got allotment of land measuring 2.150 acres from the government on payment of premium for constructing a four star category hotel.

(3.) It has been pleaded that in those news items, the defendant published the stories imputing the plaintiff. By depriving a member of the tribal community namely, Dilip Debbarma, the government land has been allotted in favour of the plaintiff. Another story 'imputes' that the plaintiff was a petty vegetable vendor, he used to work as a 'Coolie'. He used to carry rice bags to the houses of ONGC officers. He was close to the Chief Minister and Administration and for that reason, got the land of Dilip Debbarma by way of manipulation. He managed a Deputy Secretary of the Revenue Department, namely Manabendra Chakraborty, Tamal Majumder, a TCS officer et al. The defendant has described the allotment as absolutely illegal. The plaintiff has been further imputed by stating that he and his wife deal in contraband medicine, namely phensedyl but they pretend to be social workers, but in fact they are 'black-marketers' and 'smugglers'. According to the defendant, the plaintiff had to appear before the Special Court under Customs Act and NDPS Act at Guwahati in 11 cases. It has been also imputed in the news items that the plaintiff has defrauded the government for an amount of Rs.10 crores and he did not deposit a single copper out of Rs.1,71,51,951.00/- as estimated as the premium for the said allotment. The defendant's newspaper has branded the plaintiff as 'fraud' as he had created false challans of payment. In the scandal, according to the printed imputations, more than one TCS officers are involved. The news items further imputed that the plaintiff had obtained a report from Mr. Muslemuddin, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Sadar, as he then was, by illegal means. The plaintiff has asserted quite categorically that all those imputations are baseless, false and unfounded.