Court summons Ajit Jogi on November 18

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi's hopes that a Delhi court might stay the chargesheet filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), were dashed as the court announced that it would proceed to hear the case, beginning November 18.

That is the time the campaigning for the Chhattisgarh Assembly will be in full force. In the midst of the campaigning Jogi will have to fly down to New Delhi because the Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate's court has summoned him here on that day.

"Considering the entire documents and material placed on record before me, I take cognizance of the chargesheet filed against Ajit Jogi for the offences under Section 471 read with 465 and 469 of IPC," Metropolitan Magistrate Shahabuddin said in his order.

During the hearing the CBI counsel told the court that Jogi had co-operated with the agency during investigations.

To the court's question, whether the CBI had attempted to arrest Jogi, the counsel replied that as he was the chief minister of a state and there was no likelihood of his absconding or leaving the country, there was no need to take such a step.

CBI's special public prosecutor Jacob Daniel submitted that the chief minister was in possession of forged Information Bureau (IB) documents and used them as genuine.

The counsel said Jogi circulated that document to the media without waiting for confirmation or reply from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about the genuineness of the document.

His intention was to harm the reputation of special director (IB) NC Padhi, whose signature was forged. His intention was also to harm the reputation of IB and CBI, he added.

Meanwhile, Jogi's prediction that Chhattisgarh would burn after the court order, turned out to be less than accurate. A statewise bandh called by the Youth Congress and the NSUI today was successful in just a few areas.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the bandh had failed. Due to rains since yesterday there were few Congressmen on the streets and a majority of shops were closed.

However, there was usual vehicular traffic on the street and buses were seen plying amidst heavy police deployment in sensitive places of Raipur.