Friday, August 19 2005 19:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Taking a serious view of former Communist Party of India -Marxists CPI (M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet's comment on her role in anti-Sikh riots in 1984, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today threatened to file a defamation suit against him.

''The views expressed against me in the article are politically motivated, baseless and aimed at maligning me before next year's assembly elections in West Bengal,'' Banerjee told reporters at her residence. She said that a legal notice had been served against the printer, publisher and the writer (Surjeet) of the publication after consultations with her lawyer claiming compensation and demanding an unconditional apology.

Surjeet said in an article in CPI(M) organ 'People's Democracy', published recently, that ''the so-called firebrand lady of Bengal'' was among others trying to organise mayhem in West Bengal after Indira Gandhi's assassination on October 31, 1984".