The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the main opposition in Tripura, has initiated a defamation case against former Chief Minister and current Lok Sabha MP Biplab Kumar Deb, alleging that he made fabricated and defamatory statements aimed at damaging the party’s reputation.

Addressing reporters on Thursday, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury said the party was compelled to take legal action after Deb failed to respond to multiple requests for clarification, including a formal notice issued through their legal counsel.

Chaudhury said that during a religious programme held in Gandhigram earlier this year, Deb claimed that funds were stolen from the donation box of the Tripura Sundari Temple (Matabari) during the previous Left Front government’s tenure and replaced with counterfeit items. The CPI(M) leader condemned the allegations as “false, baseless, and offensive to religious sentiments.”

He said the party had initially issued a public statement asking Deb to either substantiate his claims with evidence or tender an unconditional apology. “When no response came from him, we served a legal notice. Even then, he chose not to reply. That left us with no option but to file a defamation suit,” Chaudhury said.

He accused Deb of deliberately spreading misinformation to malign the CPI(M) and mislead the public on matters involving a revered religious institution. “The party cannot tolerate such malicious propaganda,” he added, emphasising that legal recourse was necessary to uphold the party’s credibility.