Hitting back at allegations that he owned a 'benami' (held by proxy) flat in the controversial Adarsh Housing Society, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari on Thursday filed a defamation suit against Congress spokesman Manish Tewari. Gadkari in his complaint lodged before the Esplanade Metropolitan Court charged Tewari with making “false, baseless, reckless and malicious imputations” against him. He has invoked Indian Penal Code sections 499 and 500 in his complaint which pertain to defamation and defamatory utterances. In November, Tewari alleged that the BJP chief was also an owner of a flat 'by proxy' in the 31-storeyed Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in the posh Colaba area of south Mumbai.