An ethnic Indian organisation has withdrawn a libel suit filed against the chief of Indian American Intellectual Forum for defaming Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The Indian National Overseas Congress has withdrawn the libel suit filed in the New York State Supreme Court against president of IAIF Narain Kataria and Arish Sahani for taking out an advertisement in the New York Times which had 'defamed Congress chief Gandhi'.
The attorneys for INOC filed the 'notice of discontinuance' in the Supreme Court on September 29. The case was listed for hearing on October 2 after the two sides had made their written submissions.
In September, a similar case filed in a New Jersey Court was summarily dismissed on the ground of lack of jurisdiction.
The full page advertisement was taken out in the Times in October last year, when Gandhi had come to address the United Nations General Assembly's special session, to mark Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on October 2 as 'Day of Non Violence'.
INOC had not made the Times a party to the case.