Illegal Goa bar row: Smriti Irani denies charges on daughter, Cong shows proof

Speaking with the reporters on the issue, Irani refuted Congress claims and said, “Two middle-aged congressmen are answerable for the character assassination of an 18-year-old woman. Her solely fault is that her mom talks about Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.”

Adding more, the parliamentarian said, “My daughter is studying at the university. She does not run a bar. Please check the paperwork. Where is my daughter’s name? Her fault is that her mother held a press conference against the two Gandhis. My daughter is not a politician and she has a normal life as a student.”

Irani’s legal notice:

Angry over the issue, Irani even signaled that she will reach out the court to seek answers from the Congress leaders. “I will look for answers in court.” She made it clear that her her staff will ship authorised notices to veteran Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera by this night.

Apart from this, the Union Minister also dared Rahul Gandhi to contest 2024 Lok Sabha Elections from Amethi, and claimed that he would lose again.

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Congress allegations?

Earlier, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters that there are serious charges of corruption against Irani’s family. Adding more, he said that Irani’s daughter – Zoish Irani – is allegedly running a restaurant in Goa, in which a bar is functioning on a ‘fake license’.

“The license by Smriti Irani’s daughter is in the name of a person who died in May 2021, and the license was taken in June 2022 in Goa. But the person in whose name the license is, had died 13 months ago. This is illegal,” he told reporters.

According to Goa rules, a restaurant can get only one bar license but this restaurant has got two bar licenses, Khera said.

“We demand from the prime minister that Smriti Irani should be immediately sacked as a minister from the Union cabinet. You owe it to this country, to the youth of this country,” he said.

Rejection of allegations:

Zoish on Saturday termed these charges as ‘baseless’ and said she was neither an owner nor operating the restaurant.

Releasing the statement via lawyer Kirat Nagra, Zoish denied the charges and levelled the allegations as ‘concocted’.

“Our client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa. Furthermore she has not received any show cause notice from any authority whatsoever as alleged,” Nagra said.

“My client, a young eighteen year old student and a budding chef who has worked in various restaurants to learn culinary arts, is sought to be scarred in perpetuity by her mother’s political opponents who with oblique and ulterior motive seek to malign her,” Nagra said.

“These political opponents have levelled various baseless charges and concocted allegations against our client. It is unfortunate that they have resorted to spreading a false propaganda only to sensationalize a non issue without ascertaining true facts and with a predetermined objective of defaming our client for solely being the daughter of a political leader,” Nagra said in the statement.

ALSO READ: Smriti Irani confronted by Congress leader in flight over fuel, gas price hike

Congress claims proof:

Meanwhile, Congress has claimed its has evidences to prove their allegations.

Indian Youth Congress’ national President Srinivas BV even shared a video interview of Zoish where she was seen speaking about international cuisines and new restaurants opening in in Goa.

Now with the turn around of allegations, it will be interesting to see how the legal angle is shaped in coming days.

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