Spelling trouble for Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijender Gupta, a city court on Monday ordered framing of charges against him in a criminal defamation complaint lodged against him by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
Metropolitan Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal said 'prima facie' an offence of defamation is made out against Gupta and fixed the matter for July 27 for formally framing charges against him.
“Even the contention of counsel for accused (Gupta) that since the editor, publisher or the reporter of the referred newspapers have not been examined, no case is made out against the proposed offender is premature. The complainant has a liberty to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt at a stage subsequent to framing of notice in a summons triable case. In this case, prima facie offence under Section 500 (punishment for defamation) IPC is made out against the accused,” said the court.
The Magistrate also directed Gupta to personally appear in the court on the next date of hearing. During the hearing, the court granted exemption from personal appearance to both Dikshit and Gupta for the day. The court had, on May 15, reserved its order on whether to frame charges against Gupta when Dikshit had also appeared before it.