Patna: Bihar’s building construction minister and JDU national general secretary, Ashok Choudhary, has issued a Rs 100 crore defamation notice to Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor, demanding an unconditional apology after Kishor accused him of purchasing land worth Rs 200 crore.
Choudhary dismissed the claims as “misleading” and “a result of panic and frustration”, adding that the property transactions cited by Kishor were “completely false”. The notice comes days after a court summoned Kishor in a separate defamation case filed by the minister, with the hearing scheduled for September 17.
Speaking after the notice was issued, Choudhary said Kishor had made “baseless and false allegations” at a press conference to divert attention from the court proceedings.
Kishor, who has launched a state-wide campaign against corruption in Bihar, alleged that land worth nearly Rs 200 crore was purchased from the Manav Vaisnav Vikas Trust, linked to Choudhary’s father-in-law, the late Kishore Kunal, following the engagement of Choudhary’s daughter, Shambhavi. According to Kishor, five properties worth Rs 38.44 crore were bought in the two years leading up to her wedding, involving individuals close to the trust, including Kunal’s wife, Anita, and retired bureaucrat Jiagopal Arya.
He further questioned financial transfers into the accounts of Choudhary and his wife from people associated with the trust. Kishor also branded Choudhary “the most corrupt leader in Bihar”, accusing him of irregularities in land and benami property deals.
In one instance, Kishor alleged that 23 kathas of land in Patna’s Bikram area were bought in 2019 in the name of Choudhary’s personal secretary, Yogendra Dutt, before being transferred in 2021 to his daughter, MP Shambhavi Choudhary, for Rs 34 lakh – a fraction of its market value. He claimed that suspicious payments were made to mask the transaction, including a Rs 25 lakh payment on April 27 after an income tax notice was received. Choudhary has rejected all the allegations, reiterating that Kishor must issue a public apology.
