Assam PWD minister Sarat Barkotoky on Friday said he had served a notice to news portal tehelka.com asking it to apologise to him publicly within 10 days for carrying a news report claiming he had allegedly paid Rs 15 lakh to Sanghamitra Bharali to publicly claim she had married former chief minister and AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. Barkotoky said he served the notice on Thursday to the portal stating that if Tehelka failed to apologise within the stipulated period, he would file a civil and criminal suit of Rs 5 crore claiming damages for publishing a false and fabricated report to tarnish his public image.

He claimed that Priya Singh who was the reporter of the news item in the portal was actually a senior correspondent of a national daily based in Guwahati. Bureau Report