NEW DELHI: A Kolkata court on Friday issued summons to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to appear either personally or through a lawyer before it on February 22 in connection with a defamation case lodged against him by Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee.
The special judge of MP/MLA court at Bidhannagar directed that Shah is “required to appear in person/by pleader” at 10 am.
The judge directed that Shah’s attendance either personally or through a lawyer was necessary to reply to a charge of defamation under Section 500 of the IPC.
The summons have been served at the BJP state office at Kolkata’s Murleedhar Lane. Shah, who was in the city on Friday, is slated to leave Kolkata for Delhi later in the evening. Asked whether Shah would personally appear in the court on February 22, West Bengal BJP spokesman Shamik Bhattacharya replied, “His lawyers will decide this issue. We fight both in the court and public arena. The TMC has lost in the public arena and that is why it is knocking at the door of the court.
In a press note, Abhishek Banerjee’s lawyer Sanjay Basu said Shah had made certain defamatory statements against the TMC MP on August 11, 2018, at a BJP rally at Mayo Road in Kolkata. Shah, according to Basu, mentioned various chit fund scams, including “nephew’s corruption carried out by Mamataji”.