Defamation case: Gujarat court issues fresh summons against Kejriwal

A court here in Gujarat on Tuesday issued a fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party's Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh to appear before it on June 7 in a criminal defamation case lodged by the Gujarat University over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's academic degree.

The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SJ Panchal summoned Kejriwal and Singh after the court was informed that the summons issued earlier directing the duo to appear on May 23 does not appear to have been received by them as none of them was present in the court.

Earlier, the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Jayesh Chovatiya had issued summons to the AAP leaders in a criminal defamation complaint for their sarcastic and derogatory statements against the Gujarat University over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's academic degree.

AAP's legal cell head for Gujarat, Pranav Thakkar, on Monday, said Kejriwal and Singh have not yet received the summons issued to them by the court.

On Tuesday, Gujarat University's lawyer Amit Nair appraised the new judge- SJ Panchal- about the case and said that his predecessor issued the processes on April 15 against the accused persons to remain present on May 23. Since nobody was present on the given date, it is not clear whether the summons was served on them or not.

The judge asked the staff to check and then directed them to issue a summons to Kejriwal and Singh.

The previous additional chief metropolitan magistrate-Jayesh Chovatiya- issued a summons on April 15 after finding that prima facie there appeared to be a case against Kejriwal and Singh under section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on a complaint filed by Gujarat University registrar Piyush Patel.