A Delhi court today refused to withdraw its order imposing a cost of Rs5,000 on Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh for his failure to appear before it and depose in a two-year-old cheating case filed by him.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaweri Baweja took a serious view of non-appearance of Singh before the court despite several "opportunities" accorded to him.
The court, however, allowed the application filed by Singh's counsel seeking exemption from personal appearance for today on health grounds and asked the lawyer to furnish his medical records before it on November 3, next date of hearing.
It said on previous hearing, a similar plea was moved but no supporting medical documents were filed. The court on February 20 had imposed a cost (or fine) of Rs5,000 on Singh after he failed to appear before it. He also did not appear on July 13.
"Amar Singh filed another application for exemption on the ground that he had undergone surgery at Singapore and is unable to appear before the court but the plea is not supported by any documents. On the last date of hearing, similar grounds were raised and no records were submitted..., in view of these facts, there was no reason to recall the order," the court said.
Singh had registered a case against Barun Kumar Verma on June 4, 2007 alleging that he tried to extort money from him in connection with hearing of a case in Supreme Court relating to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
According to the complaint lodged by Singh with the Special Cell of Delhi Police, the accused, posing as a law officer, allegedly tried to extort Rs5 crore from him claiming, he could allegedly fix a judge, who was hearing a case against party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in a disproportionate assets case. The court then posted the matter for November 3 for further hearing and recording statements of witnesses.
Since August last year, Singh has failed to appear before the court in connection with the case. The court, on February 25, had given the SP leader a final opportunity to depose before it.
