India News | Delhi Court Summons BJP Leader Swamy in Defamation Case Filed by Fellow Partyman

New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) A Delhi court on Tuesday summoned BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in a criminal complaint filed by party's spokesperson for Delhi Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga for allegedly defaming him.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh passed the order, saying there was sufficient ground for proceedings against Swamy.

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The complaint claimed that last September, Swamy falsely alleged that before joining the BJP, Bagga was jailed many times for petty crimes by New Delhi Mandir Marg Police Station.

The judge noted that Swamy posted a tweet on September 28, 2021. However, according to the testimony of Bagga made on oath, these allegations are false and have been made to harm the reputation of complainant.

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"Even sub-inspector Sandeep Kumar, Police Station Mandir Marg, has also corroborated the version of complainant... This clearly shows that without verifying the veracity of the statement, Swamy made the same and in view of this court, said statement is sufficient to raise the reasonable doubt about the antecedents and character of complainant," the court noted.

In view of allegations made in the complaint, testimonies of the witnesses and material brought on record by them, the court said it was "prima facie" satisfied that there were sufficient grounds for summoning of Swamy as accused qua offence punishable under section 500 (defamation) IPC.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)