Ahmedabad: A day after former union minister and Gujarat Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki issued public notices against his wife through newspapers advertisements warning against any transactions with her, Reshmaben Solanki on Wednesday responded with stinging allegations of physical torture and abusive behaviour by him.
In an advertisement in all dailies titled, “Clarification to Public Notice”, Reshmaben’s counsel Nikhil Joshi stated that all the charges against her were outrageous and baseless.
“My client served him with complete dedication when he battled Covid-19 for a long time and helped him get a new lease of life” through the troubled months when he was hospitalised. “But once he (Bharatsinh Solanki) recovered and returned home, his behaviour changed,” the clarification stated.
“He abused my client (Reshmaben), thrashed her and drove her out of the house in the same clothes that she was wearing. And now when she has taken sanctuary at someone’s home, she is being threatened,” the counsel’s statement on her behalf stated.
She has alleged that the public notice was “aimed at pressuring her using his social and political stature to seek a divorce and the subsequent threats are also for that purpose.” Her advocate has stated that “she is being tortured without reason and the allegations are completely baseless.”
Bharatsinh, who is son of former external affairs minister and 4-time Gujarat chief minister, the late Madhavsinh Solanki, stated in his public notice through his lawyer that: “She (his wife) has not been living with my client for around four years. She has been behaving arbitrarily while living separately from him.”
The notice issued by Solanki's lawyer Kiran Tapodhan said, “My client being a politically and socially respectable person, nobody should conduct financial or any such transactions with his wife by misusing his name and identity. My client won’t be responsible for any consequences thereafter. If my client finds out about any such transactions, he will take legal action against the person,” it said.
A contender for Gujarat Congress chief’s post, Solanki had served as Union minister of state for power and railways and also held independent charge of drinking water and sanitation. He had unsuccessfully contested the Rajya Sabha election last year as a Congress candidate.
