Defamatory remarks by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde against RSS, BJP
A Delhi court on April 11 fixed April 23 for delivering its order on whether to summon Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in a defamation case filed against him for his remarks linking the BJP and the RSS to Hindu terror. Metropolitan Magistrate Shri Amitabh Rawat fixed the date for pronouncing the order after the complainant’s counsel completed the arguments on summoning Shinde as an accused in the case. Earlier, the Court recorded the pre-summoning evidence of the petitioner VP Kumar after it heard his counsel Monika Arora who had alleged that the Home Minister had ‘willfully’ made the ‘derogatory’ remarks to cause ‘ill will and hatred among communities’. VP Kumar, in his petition, has alleged that Shri Shinde’s remarks were aimed at ‘polarising minority votes’ in the 2014 general elections. “The impugned statement is not only defamatory in its natural meaning but also contains the imputation and insinuation that Hindu religion is involved in anti-national and terrorist activities,” the petition said. It is to be noted that Shri Shinde had made this remarks while attending the AICC meeting in Jaipur a few months back. (FOC)
