Jagdish Tytler told to appear before court in anti-Sikh riots case

A court here Wednesday directed Congress leader Jagdish Tytler to appear before it May 31 in connection with a defamation case filed against him by a lawyer appearing for victims in a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Rao directed Tytler to appear in person before him May 31. The court is likely to frame charges that day. The court was hearing a defamation complaint against Tytler filed by advocate HS Phoolka.

Phoolka has alleged that the Congress leader made a derogatory remark about him in a news programme aired on a private news channel Sep 7, 2004. Phoolka, who will contest the Lok Sabha polls for the Aam Aadmi Party from Ludhiana, said in his complaint filed in 2006 that Tytler had levelled false and derogatory allegations against him to harm his reputation. 

Advocate Kamna Vohra, appearing for Phoolka, told the court that Tytler should also be prosecuted for the offence of criminal intimidation. The case against Tytler was filed in a Ludhiana court in Punjab. Later, it was transferred to Delhi on the Supreme Court's direction.