Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan says he will be filing a criminal defamation case against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for accusing him and his family of being involved in the Vyapam and Panama Papers scams. “I am filing a criminal defamation suit for maximum damages against you for frivolous and malafide statements,” Chouhan said in a tweet addressed to Gandhi. “Let law take its own course now.”

At an election rally in Madhya Pradesh last week, the Congress president had named Chouhan as being involved in the Vyapam examination paper scam and also alleged that the name of the chief minister’s son had surfaced in the Panama Papers leak in 2016, which revealed names of politicians, movie stars and businessmen who had stashed money in tax havens.  Gandhi was reported to have said “The name of the son of mama ji (Chouhan) figured in Panama Papers.”

—India Legal Bureau