Court issues summonses to Rahul, Yechury over anti-RSS remarks
Thane, Apr 2: A city court Tuesday asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury to appear before it on April 30 to respond to the charges of defaming RSS by allegedly linking it to journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder.
The civil defamation case, seeking a token compensation of Rs one from Gandhi and Yechuri was filed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist Vivek Champanerkar, who has claimed the duo "defamed" the RSS by linking it to the killing of Lankesh.
Civil Judge J S Bhatia, who is hearing the case, ordered issuance of summonses to Gandhi and Yechury asking them to appear in the court.
The summonses are returnable on April 30.
In his prayer to the court, Champanerkar said Gandhi and Yechury are in the habit of blaming the RSS for any act of violence and this needs to be stopped.
He urged the court to direct them to stop linking the RSS with such incidents.
Champanerkar's counsel Aditya R Mishra said his client filed the civil complaint in the court against the two leaders last week.
Lankesh was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru in September 2017, allegedly by the members of a right-wing extremist group.
A Mumbai metropolitan magistrate's court is also hearing a criminal defamation case against Gandhi and Yechury, filed by another RSS activist over the same issue.
In the criminal defamation case, complainant Dhrutiman Joshi, an RSS worker and lawyer, has cited some purported remarks made by Gandhi and Yechury against the RSS after the killing of Lankesh, a strong Hindutva critic.
"Statements made by the accused and their respective political parties are in utmost sense defamatory and belittle the RSS in the eyes of common public.
"There was a definite move by the accused to tarnish the image of the RSS without citing any proof," Joshi had said in his complaint.
The Congress chief is also facing another defamation case in a court at Bhiwandi in Thane district over his alleged comments against the RSS regarding Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.
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KKR land Green for record-breaking Rs 25.20 crore; Shaw, Sarfaraz go unsold
Abu Dhabi (PTI): Kolkata Knight Riders splurged a record-breaking Rs 25.20 to land top Australian all-rounder Cameron Green even as Indian stars Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan went unsold in the Indian Premier League players' auction here on Tuesday.
Green surpassed compatriot Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore) to become the most expensive overseas player at an IPL auction. This was after Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings were involved in an intense bidding war for him before the latter emerged winner.
KKR also went after Venkatesh Iyer before pulling out of the race against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who fetched the services of the India all-rounder for Rs 7 crore.
As far as Green is concerned, his salary for the season would still be Rs 18 crore (USD 1.9 million) as the rest of the amount will go towards the BCCI's player development programme as per the rules of the auction for foreign players.
Green, who previously turned up for Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, has so far played 29 matches in the IPL to aggregate 707 runs and take 16 wickets.
Shaw, however, went unsold despite his fine run of form in the domestic circuit lately, and so was the case with Sarfaraz, who smashed a 22-ball 73 in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match for Mumbai on Tuesday.
Big-hitting South African batter David Miller was bought by Delhi Capitals for his base price of Rs 2 crore, but New Zealand swashbuckler Devon Conway, whose base price was also Rs 2 crore, went unsold in the auction.
Seasoned South African opener Quinton de Kock returned to his old base Mumbai Indians for a base price of Rs 1 crore.
A total of 359 players -- 246 Indians and 113 overseas players -- are part of the mini auction pool with the 10 franchises bidding to fill up a maximum of 77 slots, including 31 reserved for foreign players.
