All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh came out with a fresh challenge to BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Friday.
Mr. Singh, who was summoned to court in a defamation case filed by the BJP leader, told reporters he would do his research and submit in court detailed evidence to prove the allegations he had made before journalists on Mr. Gadkari’s ties with businessman-politician Ajay Sancheti.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar granted him bail on a personal bond of Rs. 50,000 and a surety of like amount and will hear the matter again on January 31.
Mr. Singh also alleged that Mr. Sancheti had earned Rs. 490 crore as profit from irregularities in coal blocks allocation in Chhattisgarh, which was published in the print media.
On October 1, Mr. Gadkari filed the defamation complaint against Mr. Singh. He denied having any business partnership with Mr. Sancheti or receiving “benefit of a single rupee by any allocation.”
The court agreed on November 17 that a prima facie defamation case was made out against Mr. Singh and issued summons to him to appear in court on December 21.
Mr. Singh told reporters, “I am grateful to Mr. Gadkari for giving me the opportunity to bring before the court the issues that I had earlier brought before the media. I will research and then apprise the court of Mr. Gadkari’s business links.”
