New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved for November 2 its order on whether to summon Congress leader Digvijay Singh in a criminal defamation case filed against him by BJP president Nitin Gadkari.
Gadkari has filed the criminal defamation case against Singh, who had accused him of having business links with his party MP Ajay Sancheti who allegedly pocketed Rs 500 crore in the coal block allocation.
Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Sudesh Kumar reserved its order on whether to summon Singh as accused in the case after recording the statements of two complainant's witnesses.
The court had earlier recorded Gadkari's statement. It recorded today the statement of BJP National Secretary Bhupinder Yadav, also a Rajya Sabha MP.
Yadav told the court that on September 3, he had read news articles in various newspapers about the alleged business relations between Gadkari and Sancheti and said it was "totally false" that Gadkari had earned Rs 490 crore from coal allocation through Sancheti.
"This statement was made by Digvijay Singh before the TV channels and media persons which was widely circulated," he said.
Yadav also told the court that the news was "defamatory" and it had lowered Gadkari's image in the eyes of the public.
"The defamatory news was aired continuously for two days. After watching this news, the image and reputation of Nitin Gadkari was lowered in the eyes of myself and general public.
"So many persons in general public talk about this. Some persons personally approached me and asked whether my party would take any action against Digvijay Singh," he said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 20:50