Punjab court summons Congress chief in defamation case
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 15 May, 2023 11:45 AM
Chandigarh, May 15 (IANS) A local court in Punjab's Sangrur has issued a notice to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in a Rs 100-crore defamation case filed against him for "objectionable" remarks against the Bajrang Dal.
The court of civil judge (senior division) Ramandeep Kaur has summoned Kharge on July 10.
Kharge compared the Bajrang Dal with the outlawed PFI in the Congress party's Karnataka Assembly poll manifesto.
Petitioner Hitesh Bhardwaj, the founder of Hindu Suraksha Parishad Bajrang Dal Hind, had filed the defamation case against Kharge for making defamatory remarks against Bajrang Dal during the recently-concluded Karnataka elections.
He said the Congress leader compared Bajrang Dal with anti-national organisations and also promised to ban it after coming to power in Karnataka.
The evacuation process named Operation Kaveri, started on April 23, as apart from INS Sumedha, two Indian Air Force aircraft were sent to bring back Indian citizens stuck in Sudan's capital Khartoum, where civil war broke out on April 15 after its army and paramilitary forces clashed with each other.
The accused were identified as Chife Monday (27) and Igwemma Jame (33), both presently residing in Delhi's Nihal Vihar area. Police said that the accused came to India in 2018 and were staying without valid documents.
Gandhi, now disqualified as a parliamentarian, was convicted by a magistrate's court on March 23 for his controversial remark, "All thieves have Modi surname," made during a political campaign in Karnataka's Kolar in 2019.
The probe agency also informed the court that Hyderabad-based CA Butchi Babu Gorantla, Arjun Pandey, and Amandeep Singh Dhall were also mentioned as accused in the final report, which also included a list of witnesses and documents that were used as support.
A media bulletin from the Fortis Hospital said that Parkash Singh Badal was admitted to the hospital on April 16 with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma. He was shifted to the medical ICU on April 18 as his respiratory condition worsened.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday said his party was fighting the Jalandhar by-election on the basis of nine years' "extraordinary performance" of the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
