Pune, June 23: More than a fortnight after Maharashtra minister for food and civil supplies Suresh Jain filed a defamation suit against anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, the latter registered a similar complaint against the former in a court here today. Hazare filed a criminal defamation case against Jain for calling him a "fraud" at a press conference recently. The case was filed in the court of Judicial Magistrate first class, P K Kulkarni.

At the press conference, which was held following an outburst by Hazare in which he had called the minister "corrupt", Jain had described the anti-corruption crusader as a "fraud", who had no sanction to call him or other ministers corrupt and charged the social activist with defaming him and others.

Hazare retaliated by filing a complaint against Jain. The case has been filed under Sections 499 and 500 of IPC.
Jain had filed a case against Hazare on June 5 alleging that the latter had defamed him by calling him corrupt in a section of the media.

On June 21, a Jalgaon court had issued summons against Hazare in a defamation case filed by Jain. The notice is made returnable on July 11.
Bureau Report