The Indian National Congress’ chief troll Saket Gokhale has been served a legal notice by Lakshmi M Puri, wife of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri after Gokhale, true to his incompetence, posted a thread with baseless allegations against Lakshmi Puri.
Lakshmi Puri, who is currently working as a commentator on National and International Affairs, saw herself become the latest target of Congress troll Saket Gokhale as he tried to besmirch her stints as the Assistant Secretary-General at United Nations, Deputy Executive Director at United Nations Women, and Ambassador of India to Hungary and accredited to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gokhale, in his series of tweets, alleged that Puri bought a house worth $2.5 million in Switzerland, with no legitimate sources of income showed by the power couple.
Gokhale then donned a mathematician’s hat and concluded that the Puris could not have afforded the downpayment of CHF 5,40,000 (Rs. 4.3 crores) of the house purchased in 2006 as he claimed that the annual income of Lakshmi M Puri would have been around Rs 10-12 lakh per year.
Lakshmi Puri didn’t take kindly to Gokhale’s baseless accusations and chose hit back as she tweeted, “Get your facts right @SaketGokhale & there is no ‘mystery’. I was an International Civil Servant from 2002 to Feb ‘18. Drew a tax free UN salary of over US $200,000 annually when I bought the apartment in Geneva. All facts declared to concerned authorities. Prepare to be sued.”
Get your facts right @SaketGokhale & there is no ‘mystery’. I was an International Civil Servant from 2002 to Feb ‘18. Drew a tax free UN salary of over US $200,000 annually when I bought the apartment in Geneva.
All facts declared to concerned authorities.
Prepare to be sued.— Lakshmi M Puri (@lakshmiunwomen) June 23, 2021
Since Puri was on the payrolls of the United Nations and earning a tax-free salary of over $200,000 annually, her income would have been much more than Rs 10 -12 lakh per annum as alleged by Gokhale and hence she could have afforded the downpayment of the house.
A cornered Gokhale then proceeded to question why the details of assets owned by Lakshmi Puri are not mentioned in the affidavit of her spouse, Hardeep Singh Puri who is a Rajya Sabha MP and a Union Minister. However, the affidavit clearly mentions the details of nine bank accounts held by Lakshmi Puri in India, Geneva and New York, with a combined deposit of around Rs 3.50 crore.
As a proud daughter of Maharashtra & a professional all my life, I am appalled by your shameful antics @SaketGokhale.
My lawyers informed me that you have received the legal notice.
Hard copy will be delivered at your residence tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/7V8t3ZLRKC— Lakshmi M Puri (@lakshmiunwomen) June 23, 2021
Puri was in no mood to spare Gokhale who was hell-bent on trying to ruin her reputation through false accusations and promptly dispatched a legal notice which categorically states that if Gokhale failed to apologise, delete his tweets and give an undertaking that he won’t resort to such slanderous behaviour in the future, would result in criminal and civil proceedings against him and also for punitive damages for defamation and injury.