Defamatory remarks against RSS, BJP: Court to pronounce order on April 23 on summoning Shinde

A Delhi court today fixed April 23 for giving its order on whether to summon Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in a defamation case filed against him for his remarks linking BJP and RSS to Hindu terror.

Metropolitan Magistrate 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 it had recorded the pre-summoning evidence of the petitioner V P 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”.

Kumar, in his petition, has alleged that 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, adding the minister “has used the word saffron as synonym of terrorism, which is totally absurd, wrong, mischievous and defamatory”.

According to the petition, Shinde had, while addressing an AICC meeting at Jaipur earlier this year, said “…We have got an investigation report that be it RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism. We are keeping a strict vigil on all this”.