Monday, November 14 2005 15:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) Politburo member Anil Biswas today (Nov 14, 2005) moved a criminal defamation case against Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury, against whom an arrest warrant is pending in a murder case, for allegedly making defamatory comments in an interview to a Bengali television news channel.

Biswas moved the case under sections 500 and 501 of IPC (defamation) against Chowdhury and senior officials and a reporter of the channel before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM), Kolkata, Jaladhar Mondal, who said that he would pass the necessary order in the matter on Wednesday.

Chowdhury, MP from Baharampur constituency in West Bengal, had allegedly made defamatory comments against Biswas, who is also CPI(M)'s state secretary here, in an interview in Delhi to the channel on November nine.

Biswas made a statement before the judge from the witness box submitting that at around 2:00 pm on November nine, some persons told him that the channel had telecast an interview of Chowdhury wherein he made certain allegations against him.

Biswas said, "Hearing this, I saw the interview on the channel when it was aired again wherein Chowdhury alleged that I have a huge amount of money stashed away in a US bank account and also that my daughter had gone to London several times.

"I was deeply shocked by such allegations which is very insulting at this stage of my career," he stated.

Professor Subhankar Chakraborty, one of those who saw the interview in the channel, also deposed before the court to corroborate the CPI (M) leader's statement.

Biswas had on November nine threatened to sue Chowdhury, a Congress stalwart in Murshidabad, if he did not retract and apologise for making allegations against him.

Biswas had said that he was giving 48 hours to the Congress MP to retract, or else he would file a criminal defamation case after '96 hours'.

Advocates Amiya Chakraborty and Ashok Bakshi represented Biswas in the court.

The courtroom of the chief metropolitan magistrate was packed to capacity with lawyers, party supporters and onlookers.