NEW DELHI: In what seems to be a war within the BJP, party leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has filed a defamation case against senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy at a court here. The Rouse Avenue court took cognisance of the offence punishable under 500 IPC (Defamation) and received the summoned records. The court will further hear the case on January 12.
The case follows a Twitter spat between the two leaders in September. Bagga had sent a defamation notice to Swamy in October. Swamy had tweeted that Bagga had been jailed several times for petty crimes. "Journalists from Delhi told me that before joining BJP, Tajinder Bagga was jailed several times for petty crimes by the New Delhi Mandir Marg police station. True? Nadda should know," added Swamy.
Hitting back, Bagga said, "Heard you are James Bond ke Chacha. Instead of tweeting Call Mandir Marg SHO, take details and Expose me. Giving you 48 Hours, uske baad meri turn. your time starts now (sic)." Bagga later sent a legal notice to Swamy and said he would file civil and criminal defamation cases if the latter did not apologise.
In the legal notice, Bagga asked Swamy to furnish details like serial numbers of FIRs registered against him in Delhi, all DD numbers of complaints registered or lodged against him, all dates when he was allegedly arrested and jailed, and articles, newspapers cutting and names of journalists who had reported about the alleged arrest of Bagga in newspapers.