Congress leaders receive 'cease & desist ' notices over their Rafale attack from Anil Ambani's Reliance group companies

Days after Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Chairman Anil Ambani wrote to Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the Rafael deal, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Defence and Reliance Aerostructure have slapped 'cease and desist' notices to Congress leaders for making "derogatory statements" against the company with regards to the deal between India and France to buy advanced fighter jets. As per the legal notice, the Congress leaders have been asked to ‘restrain from speaking on Rafale issue’, failing which they will face ‘legal consequences’.

Here are the important points from the legal notice:

• The notice claims that several leaders of Congress viz Randeep Surjewala, Ashok Chavan, Sanjay Nirupam, Anugrah Narayan Singh, Oommen Chandy, Shaktisinh Gohil, Dr Abhishek Singhvi, Sunil Kumar Jakhar and Priyanka Chaturvedi have made “derogatory, false, misleading, frivolous, baseless, and distorted statements on the matter”
• The notice further states that the leaders are doing so to “suit their political interests”
• Statements made are “factually incorrect, speculative and exhibit their lack of understanding of the subject matter”
• "False statements" have tarnished the image of Reliance, resulting in defamation
• It has also sought retraction of the statements made against Reliance and urged to avoid making any such “unverified, speculative, incorrect, false” statements on such sensitive matter related to “national security"

Here's the copy of cease and desist notice to Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill:

Earlier, Anil Ambani wrote to Congress president Rahul Gandhi calling the scam allegations being hurled over the Rafale Deal a result of the party being 'misinformed, misdirected and misled by malicious vested interests and corporate rivals'. 

Read: Here is the full text of the letter by Anil Ambani to Congress President Rahul Gandhi

Over the last few weeks, the Congress has intensified its attack on the Modi government on the Rafale deal on the basic premise that following the Prime Minister's intervention, the deal would allegedly cost India more per jet, and that rather than creating jobs for Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL), the lucrative contract for maintaining the jets would go to PM Modi's 'friend' whose company is burdened by a large debt, details of which are in the public domain.

Rahul Gandhi had faced massive embarrassment over the matter during the recent no confidence motion against the Modi government, when he alleged that the French President had personally told him that there was no secrecy clause in place that prevented the Indian government from making the finer points of the deal public. Mere hours later, France issued a release refuting Rahul Gandhi's allegations.

Read: Exposed | Rafale Papers Expose Congress' Claim, UPA Bargained For More Expensive Deal

Earlier, Republic TV had accessed papers that detailed that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government had decided on a deal that was effectively more expensive than the NDA government's by Rs 59 crore per plane (Rs 1646 crore for NDA, versus Rs 1705 crore for UPA), despite the NDA's deal also carrying added enhancements.