New Delhi, July 24 : According to Aires Rodrigues, a Goa-based lawyer who filed the complaint, the liquor license was issued in June 2022, in the name of one Anthony Dgama, a native of Mumbai who passed away in 2021.

The Congress on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack Union Minister Smriti Irani, alleging that an "illegal bar" was being run in Goa by her daughter.  Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that there are serious charges of corruption against Irani's family and her daughter is allegedly running a restaurant in Goa, in which a bar is functioning on a "fake licence".

"The licence by Smriti Irani's daughter is in the name of a person who died in May 2021, and the licence was taken in June 2022 in Goa. But the person in whose name the licence is, had died 13 months ago. This is illegal," he said.  According to Goa rules, a restaurant can get only one bar licence but this restaurant has got two bar licences.  "We demand from the prime minister that Smriti Irani should be immediately sacked as a minister from the Union cabinet. You owe it to this country, to the youth of this country," he said.

In a statement, the lawyer of Irani's daughter, Kirat Nagra, said his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa, and has also not received any show cause notice from any authority whatsoever as alleged.  Nagra said various "erroneous, frivolous, malicious and defamatory social media posts being made by various vested quarters trying to settle political scores with our client's mother, the renowned politician Smriti Irani each of which are predicated on blatant falsities".

Terming the charges as "baseless", Nagra said, "It is unfortunate that they have resorted to spreading a false propaganda only to sensationalize a non issue without ascertaining true facts and with a predetermined objective of defaming Our Client for solely being the daughter of a political leader."

On Saturday, minister Irani also rejected the allegations calling it as malicious , and said the college student was targeted because of her mother's vocal stand on the Sonia and Rahul Gandhi's "Rs 5,000-crore loot" in the National Herald case.

The Congress "assassinated" and "publicly mutilated" her daughter's character, Irani said in a press conference.  She asserted her 18-year-old daughter is a first-year college student and does not run any bar.  "My daughter's fault is that her mother holds a press conference on the loot of Rs 5,000 cr by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Her fault is that her mother fought against Rahul Gandhi in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls," she said.