Gujarat court issues second summons to Tejashwi Yadav in defamation case

Tejashwi Yadav. File Pic

A metropolitan court in Ahmedabad on Friday issued summons to Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav for the second time in a criminal defamation case after learning that the first summons could not be served to him due to some confusion.

As per the latest summons, Yadav is required to appear before the court on October 13.

On August 28, the court of Additional Metropolitan Magistrate D J Parmar had issued summons to Yadav in a criminal defamation case filed against him over his reported remarks that "only Gujaratis can be thugs (fraudster)."

The court issued summons to the senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader to appear before it on September 22 in the case registered under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

When the court began the hearing of the case on Friday, it was revealed that the summons was still lying in the court and it was never delivered to Yadav.

While the complainant Haresh Mehta (69) was under the impression that the court, through the police or its own machinery, would hand over the summons to Yadav, the court was under the impression that Mehta's lawyer had collected it from the court clerk and delivered it to Yadav.

To clear the confusion, Parmar on Friday said it is Mehta's job to serve the summons because he is the complainant. Parmar then issued a second summons and asked Mehta to make the necessary arrangements to deliver it to Yadav.

The court had in August conducted an inquiry against Yadav under section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and found sufficient grounds to summon him on the basis of the complaint filed by Mehta, a social worker and businessman based in Ahmedabad.

Mehta had filed his complaint in the court along with the proof of Yadav's statement made before the media in Bihar capital Patna on March 21 this year.

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