Written by Pavneet Singh ChadhaPanaji | September 30, 2025 06:57 AM IST 3 min readA local court in Goa, in its interim order, restrained Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh from making any statements maligning BJP leader Sulakshana Sawant — the wife of Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant — in public as well as on social media until her defamation lawsuit is decided.In 2024, Sulakshana Sawant filed a special civil suit against Singh, accusing him of making defamatory statements during a press conference by alleging that she was involved in a “cash-for-jobs scam”. In her plea, Sulakshana sought an injunction restraining Singh from making public statements maligning her and sought Rs 100 crore in damages.The plea also sought that the AAP leader be restrained from republishing or sharing on social media the video and transcripts of the press conference in which the alleged defamatory statements had been made. In the interim order, ad hoc Civil Judge Senior Division and JMFC Anuradha Andrade said: “The defendant himself or through his associates, representatives, supporters, agents or any other person acting through him are restrained from making public statements maligning the image of the plaintiff similar to the nature of the statements made in the present case and pertaining to the subject matter of the present case till the suit is decided on merits”.The judge goes on to say: “The defendant himself or through his associates, representatives, supporters, agents or any other person acting through him are restrained from making any statements on social media or other platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, [and] Twitter, maligning the image of the plaintiff similar to the nature of the statements made in the present case and pertaining to the subject matter of the present case till the suit is decided on merits”.In the alleged “cash-for-jobs” scam, Goa Police had lodged at least 34 FIRs and made several arrests. Hundreds of people were allegedly lured to pay vast sums of money to the accused on the promise of jobs in various government departments. According to police, the jobs were promised with the help of “connections” of the accused.In December 2024, Sanjay Singh alleged that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, his wife Sulakshana and other BJP MLAs were also involved in the scam. At a press conference in Delhi at the time, Singh claimed “jobs are being sold for bribes in Goa”. Singh also claimed that the names of BJP office bearers cropped up during investigation in the alleged scam and that there were audio files to prove the same.Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had hit back at the AAP leader, calling the allegations ‘baseless’ and threatened to file a defamation case against him.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Sanjay Singh