~5CR DEFAMATION SUIT FILED AGAINST MP HOME MINISTER

SAGAR: A crockery shop owner has filed a defamation case seeking ~5 crore in damages against Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh. The applicant is a government witness in the defamation case filed by Sadhna Singh, wife of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, against leader of opposition Ajay Singh.

Explaining his suit, the crockery shop owner, Akshay Jain, said that the home minister had called him a ‘blackmailer’ while speaking to a local Hindi daily, and had also said that my sisterin-law had filed a case against me and my elderly mother and were now being harassed by me.

“These allegations have damaged my reputation in the society and my wife and children are facing a difficult situation,” he said.

Jain said his younger brother had died in 2013, six years after he was divorced. After his death, his ex-wife remarried. “She has not filed any case against me. But my brothers, at the behest of the home minister, complained against me to Sagar SP SK Shukla, and the case is in court,” Jain said, adding he will file contempt case against his brothers and the police Monday.

“I am terrified that I have raised my voice against the home minister and have no faith in the police that works under him. I will demand adequate protection for me and my family,” he said.

When contacted, home minister Bhupendra Singh said he will reply to the defamation suit through his lawyer. “I have already sent him a notice in this regard,” the home minister said.

Jain said on November 20 that the minister was putting pressure on him to appear as a witness in the defamation case related to the chief minister and his wife and leader of opposition.