Shalli Kumar (podium) introduces U.S. Rep Pete Sessions (R-TX) at Manju Goel announcement
AURORA - The competitive 8th CD GOP primary between Aurora resident Manju Goel and Carpentersville's Larry Kaifesh has erupted into a defamation lawsuit.
Goel supporter and Lake County businessman Shlabh Kumar is suing Kaifesh, a campaign supporter Carrie Miller and political activist and publicist Biju Mathew, a complaint filed in DuPage County's 18th Judicial Circuit November 27, 2013, shows.
Kumar, who is also founder of the National Indian American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI), is demanding Kaifesh, Miller and Mathew pay compensatory damages for making false statements that were "injurious" to Kumar's "good reputation."
The lawsuit accuses Carrie Miller of distributing leaflets at the Barrington Township GOP's November meeting that contained false information about Kumar. Miller's leaflets were copies of Biju Mathew's press release pointing to a controversy about a fundraiser recently held in Washington DC for a prominent Indian leader Narendra Modi.
"Miller is an agent of Kaifesh," the complaint says. "The distribution of the flyers at the Barrington Hills event was orchestrated between Defendant Miller and Defendant Kaifesh in order to falsely portray Plaintiff Kumar as a person with a checkered past of ethics violations, and also to demean Ms. Goel by her association with Plaintiff Kumar. Miller had been very active in assisting the Kaifesh campaign since Kaifesh's announcement of November 4, 2013."
Ms. Miller told Illinois Review last week that her handout referred to a dust up in Washington D.C. where Goel-backer Shalli Kumar received a "cease and desist" order from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers about a fundraising event he and his organization, National Indian American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI), promoted on Capitol Hill.
Goel's GOP opponent Kaifesh overwhelmingly won the Barrington Township GOP straw poll. Last week, the Kaifesh campaign denied to Illinois Review any connection to the leaflets in question or their distribution.
A copy of the disputed flyer Miller distributed at the Barrington Hills GOP event was submitted as Exhibit A in the lawsuit:
More about a controversy surrounding one of Kumar's events in Washington DC HERE. Kumar is being represented in DuPage County court by Chuhak & Tecson, P.C.
