Court sets August 17 as next date of hearing in Majithia’s defamation case

Amritsar, July 18

SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia today appeared in the district court in a defamation case he had filed against AAP leaders in 2016. The next date of hearing has been fixed for August 17.

However, Majithia skipped acknowledging the summons of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Punjab police in Patiala for questioning in a separate three-year-old drug case, due to a clash of dates. After serving jail sentence for five months, he was out on bail in August 2022.

In Amritsar court, Majithia had filed a defamation case against Arvind Kejriwal, Ashish Khetan and Sanjay Singh of AAP in May 2016, in the run-up to state assembly elections in 2017

During the rallies, the AAP leaders had publicly accused the SAD leader of patronising drug trade in the state following which he had accused them of defaming him. Kejriwal and Khetan had earlier apologised to Majithia in March 2018. However, as Sanjay Singh had not issued an apology, he is still facing defamation charges in court.

On missing out date with SIT at Patiala, Majithia clarified that he was given last opportunity to appear in person for the ongoing defamation case in Amritsar.

He said that he was deliberately called up by the SIT at Patiala on the same day to prevent him from visiting the court in Amritsar.

“As I could not attend the last hearing, I could not afford to miss today’s hearing in Amritsar as per the orders of the judge. So, I had no other choice. Sanjay Singh had appeared last time on July 6 and today’s date was fixed and it was widely spread through media. Was it not known to the government-oriented SIT? I believe that it was a deliberate attempt planned to make me skip my court visit to Amritsar to give advantage to Sanjay Singh,” he said.

When asked about the Akal Takht summoning SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal to furnish his reply in person about the allegations levelled by a group of rebel Akali leaders, Majithia said that the Akal Takht is the supreme institution of Sikhs and every Sikh is bound to obey its orders. Yet, he reminded those on the other side not to forget that they were part and parcel of everything and enjoyed high positions then.