Kolkata, Dec 11 (IANS): The Calcutta High Court on Monday put an interim stay on a defamation case filed against the leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

A single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh put a stay on the the suit filed against Adhikari by Amit Banerjee, the father of Trinamool Congress’ national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, for three months till March next year, when the matter will come up for hearing before the same court.

Amit Banerjee filed the defamation suit against Adhikari for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him at a public meeting in Diamond Harbour, indirectly accusing him of minting crores of rupees through corrupt means.

Although Adhikari did not name anyone in his statement, Amit Banerjee claimed that the leader of opposition had actually targeted him. He also claimed that such comments by Adhikari resulted in the loss of his social prestige.

First Amit Banerjee had sent a legal notice to Adhikari. After not getting any reply, he filed the defamation suit in the Calcutta High Court against Adhikari.

Recently, Minister of Public Health Engineering, Pulak Roy, had also filed a defamation suit against Adhikari over the latter accusing Roy and his department of irregularities in the purchase of drinking water ferrules under the Centrally-sponsored Jal Jeevan Mission.

The matter will come up for hearing before the Calcutta High Court on January 11.