New Delhi: Squarely blaming Harkishen Singh Surjeet for his unceremonious removal as the Chairman of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Anupam Kher today (Oct 14, 2004) sent a legal notice to the veteran Left leader asking for withdrawing his allegation that the actor was an RSS (Rashtriya Samajwadi Party) functionary or face a defamation suit.

"In his article published in CPM (Communist Party Marxist) journal 'People's Democracy', I was dubbed as an RSS man responsible for saffronising process to suit Sangh's ideology. I strongly object to this," he told newsmen in New Delhi, a day after his removal from the chairman's post.

He said his lawyer has sent a letter to Surjeet asking him to publicly deny the statement within 48 hours or face legal action.

In the notice served on the Marxist leader today, Kher's lawyer said the actor was not associated with any political ideology.

"Your generalisation of every appointee during the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) regime to be an RSS person is too dangerous and grossly erroneous. My client takes serious exception to such irresponsible and unsubstantiated utterance causing undeserved humiliation and disrepute to him," the notice, which mentions Kher as CBFC chief, said.

The notice threatens that the actor would be "constrained to adopt legal action in the nature of civil suit for damages and criminal prosecution for defamation" if Surjeet did not deny his statement.

It asked Surjeet to "satisfactorily substantiate the allegation or publicly deny the same within 48 hours" from the receipt of the notice.