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Kesri gets bail in RSS defamation case

A Delhi court today granted bail to former Congress president Sitaram Kesri in a defamation case filed against him by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for his allegation that the RSS was responsible for the February bomb blasts in Coimbatore that claimed more than 60 lives.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Prem Kumar, while granting bail to Kesri, asked him to furnish a bond of Rs 10,000 and a surety of the same amount.

The court has fixed July 8 as the next date for further proceedings.

Kesri appeared before the magistrate in response to summons issued to him by the court earlier.

He was accompanied by a battery of lawyers, headed by Kailash Gambhir, and many senior Congress leaders including Jagdish Tytler, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jag Pravesh Chandra and J P Agarwal.

About 500 Congress supporters, carrying Congress flags, shouted slogans 'Kesri zindabad' outside the court. RSS counsel Rajesh Gogna said Kesri's supporters were trying to prejudice the court. The defence counsel countered the charge saying that since Kesri was once the Congress president, he was bound to have mass support.

A criminal complaint, filed by the president of the Delhi pradesh RSS, Satya Narain Bansal, had stated that Kesri in a press conference had allegedly held RSS responsible for the serial blasts in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on February 14.

UNI

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