New Delhi. Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale has once again received a setback from the Delhi High Court. Gokhale’s petition was dismissed in India’s former diplomat Lakshmi Puri defamation case. Gokhale had appealed to withdraw an order to apologize in the defamation case and to withdraw the order to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Laxmi Puri. High Court Judge Purushendra Kumar Kaurav told the TMC MP that we cannot help you. The judge also dismissed Gokhale’s petition to waive a delay of more than 180 days in seeking relief.
Laxmi Puri, wife of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and former Assistant General Secretary of India at the United Nations, filed a defamation case against Saket Gokhale in the year 2021. Gokhale had posted several posts against Hardeep Singh Puri and Laxmi Puri on social media. Gokhale raised questions about the case of Hardeep and Lakshmi buying a flat in Switzerland and demanded the ED to investigate their property. The court, after hearing the arguments of both the parties in the past, said that the allegations made by Gokhale against Lakshmi Puri and her husband Hardeep Puri have been deviated.
Along with this, Gokhale was instructed to put an apology in the Times of India and also to forgive on his social media handle. It also said that this apology should last for 6 months. Subsequently, in December last year, Laxmi Puri filed a contempt petition against Saket Gokhale. He alleged that Saket Gokhale failed to follow the court’s decision. Although at that time Saket Gokhale expressed his desire to compromise with Lakshmi Puri, he denied the agreement. Along with this, the court ordered him to apologize and pay 50 lakh compensation.
