Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was on Friday (October 13) exempted by a metropolitan magistrate's court in Ahmedabad from appearance in a criminal defamation case filed against him for his alleged "only Gujaratis can be thugs" remark.
Tejashwi was asked to be present next month in the court.
On August 28 this year, additional metropolitan magistrate D J Parmar had issued summons to the Bihar Deputy CM and asked him to be present on September 22 in a case filed under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code for alleged criminal defamation.
Tejashwi was issued second summons on September 22 after the court learnt that the first summons could not be served to him because of some technical reasons.
However, as the matter was taken up for hearing on Friday, Tejashwi’s lawyer SM Vatsa filed an exemption application.
Magistrate grants exemption
Magistrate Parmar granted exemption and posted the hearing for November 4 when the RJD leader is expected to appear before the court and record his statement.
The court had in August conducted a preliminary inquiry against Yadav under section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and found sufficient grounds to summon him on the basis of a complaint filed by Haresh Mehta, a local businessman and activist.
According to the complaint, the Bihar Deputy CM had said on March 21 this year while speaking to the media that “only Gujaratis can be thugs in the present situation, and their fraud will be forgiven”.
"Who will be responsible if they run away with the money belonging to the LIC or banks?" the Bihar Deputy CM had allegedly said.
Mehta claimed that the statement defamed all Gujaratis.
(With PTI inputs)
