Ahmedabad’s Metropolitan Court on Tuesday issued summons to journalist Rohini Singh and the editors of news website The Wire, IANS reported. They are accused in a criminal defamation case filed by Jay Shah, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party National President Amit Shah.
The court will hear the case next on November 13.
The summons were issued under sections 500 (punishment for defamation) and 114 (abetting an offence) of the Indian Penal Code and section 202 (postponement of issue of process) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Jay Shah’s advocate told the court there was a prima facie case of defamation, and the article was published with the intent to defame. “There was an ulterior motive in publishing the article, and the timing was deliberate to make it an issue for the [Gujarat] elections,” advocate SV Raju told reporters.
On October 9, Jay Shah had filed the defamation case against The Wire, its editor and its reporter for an article that alleged that the revenues of his company had grown massively the year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.
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