Moni Kumar Subba

Guwahati, Oct. 4: Former MP Moni Kumar Subba today threatened to file a defamation case against a Noida petitioner for levelling “false charges” over his citizenship in the Supreme Court.

Subba today said over phone from Delhi that he was confident of receiving “justice” from the Supreme Court, claiming that the Nepal government had already given him a clean chit.

The Tezpur lottery lord’s claims come three days after the apex court refused to direct the CBI to take action against him even though the investigating agency has cast doubts about documents produced by him in support of his nationality.

It was on Noida resident Birendra Nath Singh’s plea that the court had asked the CBI in 2005 to “verify” documents submitted by Subba.

Singh in his affidavit to the Supreme Court had claimed that Subba was a citizen of Nepal and that his actual name was Mani Raj Limboo, a convict in a murder case.

Subba argued that the Nepal government has clarified that Limboo and Subba were not the same person and that Limboo was lodged in a Nepal jail till 1982.

He said the Nepal government also stated that Subba was not a citizen of that country.

The charges levelled against him were false and baseless, he added.

“Once the Supreme Court absolves me of the charges I will file a defamation case against Singh as well as a criminal case for filing forged documents in the court.”

He said the discrepancies in his date and place of birth in various documents were clerical errors.

“As far as I am concerned, I was born in 1958 in Siliguri. Why will I change my date of birth? What do I get by doing so?” he asked.

The CBI had sparked a furore when it had claimed in the apex court on April 28, 2008 that Subba’s birth certificate and other documents, submitted to the Election Commission to prove his Indian nationality, appeared to be fake.

Subba was one of the richest candidates to contest the 2009 elections — his income as disclosed to the Election Commission was around Rs 60 crore.

Despite Subba’s stout defence, there are a very few takers of his claims even in his own party.

While chief minister Tarun Gogoi had quickly distanced his government from the controversy saying that law would take its own course, other senior Congress leaders saw in the controversy an opportunity to sideline the influential former MP.

In the past, the PCC had brought several charges of indiscipline against Subba, but could not take any action against him because of his rapport with the party high command.

In the last Assembly elections, after his brother S.R. Subba was denied a party ticket, Subba let him contest as an Independent candidate aga-inst the official Congress candidate at Naoboicha in Sonitpur district. Subba even openly campaigned for his brother.

“Because of his proximity to the party central leadership he managed to get his way despite opposition from a majority in the PCC leadership,” a Congress general secretary said.

He said the PCC would now pressure the high command to clip Subba’s wings.