Bhattacharya in Siliguri on Wednesday. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri, June 22: Former urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya today said he would file a suit against the vice-chancellor of North Bengal University for allegedly defaming him and his party by accusing them of “interfering in some affairs of the varsity.”

“After going through the vice-chancellor’s statement that he made last week, I found out that the allegations are baseless, false and politically motivated. It was done with a wrong intention to defame me and my party and I have decided to file a suit against him for trying to malign us by wrongly implicating us,” Bhattacharya said at a media conference here.

Vice-chancellor Arunabha Basumajumdar had accused the CPM leaders of subjecting him and his family to mental torture. “Some local CPM leaders have been telling me that I should work according to their instructions regarding all matters of the varsity…I and my family have been made victims of unbearable torture for having resisted their interference,” he had said.

Basumajumdar had also blamed a CPM coterie in the varsity for indulging in corruption and irregularities in various departments.

“We have already started taking legal advices in this regard. Just because we are no longer in power, the vice-chancellor is trying to win confidence of the ruling political party (read Trinamul) by making baseless comments against us,” Bhattacharya said.

Basumajumdar had said on Saturday that people from the CPM had threatened him and his family with dire consequences through anonymous letters and phone calls.

“He joined NBU on 2008, and claims that since then he has faced interference from the CPM leaders including me. I am curious to know whether the vice-chancellor can furnish any letter, phone call records or similar proofs to prove our intervention. He has alleged that some CPM leaders tried to meet him and give him some unsolicited advice on the affairs of the varsity. Why can’t he name those people then? These indicate the hollowness of the allegations levelled against us,” said Bhattacharya.

Jibesh Sarkar, a state committee member of the CPM, said: “If we had remained silent after the allegations, people would have misinterpreted us. We thus spoke today to clarify our stand.”