A Delhi court today fixed October 15 for hearing a criminal defamation complaint filed against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler by a senior lawyer representing the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases.
The matter was put for the next date as Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Gaurav Rao was on leave today.
Tytler had earlier told the court that he was ready to tender "unconditional apology" to senior advocate H S Phoolka, complainant in the case, to settle the matter as no public interest was involved in the complaint filed by an individual.
Phoolka, however, had refused to accept Tytler's offer, saying "any compromise" in a serious matter like this would send a wrong message to the people.
The court had also asked Phoolka to bring on record today the aired interview, in which Tytler had allegedly defamed Phoolka, in the form of VCD/DVD so that it could go through the same to ascertain the facts.
"It has transpired that part of the allegations are oral testimony and part are in the form of transcripts in electronic video cassette....I have to go through the cassette and verify the transcripts," the ACMM had said.
Phoolka, who has filed the complaint against Tytler, had alleged that the Congress leader had passed derogatory remark about him in a news programme aired on September 7, 2004,
Phoolka, in his complaint filed in 2006, had alleged that Tytler had levelled false and derogatory allegations against him to harm his reputation in the society.
His counsel had earlier told the court that Tytler should also be prosecuted for the offence of criminal intimidation under section 506 of the IPC.
The case against Tytler was filed in a Ludhiana court in Punjab. Later on, it was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court on Tytler's plea.
