Bengal chief secretary weighs defamation case against Mahua Moitra over ‘vote chor’ remark

Kolkata: Manoj Kumar Agarwal, the current West Bengal chief secretary who was chief electoral officer during the special intensive revision of the state's electoral rolls, said he was seeking legal opinion and considering filing a defamation suit against Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra.

In a post on X over the weekend, Moitra described Agarwal and former ECI special observer Subrata Gupta as the "2 biggest architects of Bengal SIR" and alleged they had committed "every illegality under the planet".

Agarwal told ET on Wednesday that he was seeking legal opinion and preparing to initiate defamation proceedings against the MP. Gupta is now an adviser to West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari. Gupta said he was also exploring legal opinions on the issue.

'Vote chor'

In another post on Tuesday, Moitra called the former CEO a "vote chor" and said it was "not defamation when truth is spoken". On Wednesday, she said CEC "was obviously too busy to meet us (Opposition MPs) yesterday - he had to rig two bypolls in Bengal".