Defamation charges to be framed against BJP leader on CM's plea

Spelling trouble for BJP leader Vijender Gupta, a court here on Monday ordered framing of charges against him in a criminal defamation complaint lodged by chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

Metropolitan magistrate Namrita Aggarwal said “prima facie” an offence of defamation is made out against Gupta, and fixed the matter for July 22 for formally framing charges against him.

“Even the contention of the counsel for accused (Gupta) that since the editor, publisher or the reporter of the referred newspapers have not been examined, no case is made out against the proposed offender, is premature,” said the court.

“The complainant has a liberty to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt at a stage subsequent to framing of notice in a summons triable case. In this case, prima facie offence under section 500 (punishment for defamation) IPC is made out against the accused.”

The magistrate also directed Gupta to personally appear in court on the next date of hearing. The court, however, granted exemption from personal appearance to both Dikshit and Gupta on Monday’s hearing.

The court had on May 15 reserved its order on whether to frame charges against Gupta when Dikshit had appeared before it. Dikshit had also appeared in the court on May 30 last year for recording her statement, after which Gupta was summoned as an accused in the case.

She had filed the criminal defamation case against Gupta, alleging that the BJP leader used “uncivilised” language against her in the run-up to the MCD polls last year.

Dikshit’s counsel argued that the complainant would withdraw the complaint if the accused, even at this stage, makes a statement in court that the defamatory words published in the newspapers were not stated by him, and that they were the creation of the correspondent or the publisher of the said newspapers.