“The paper had published the news without verifying it and the news has damaged the reputation of my client”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has sued a Rajkot newspaper for defamation and is seeking Rs 51 crore in damages.

Principal senior civil judge P B Parmar issued a summons to Satish Mehta, who is the editor and owner of Aabtak, and asked him to be present at court on February 4.

It is understood that the newspaper published a story on November 20, 2014 which claimed that Jadeja and his business partner, Jenesih Ajmera, had ties with Bali Dangar, who is currently facing charges of land grabbing and extortion.

“We had to move the court after we failed to get response to legal notices sent to the editor,” Jadeja’s lawyer Hiren Bhatt said. “The paper had published the news without verifying it and the news has damaged the reputation of my client. Jadeja has no links [and] has never met Dangar in his life. The newspaper says that Ajmera is Jadeja’s partner in the restaurant [Jaddu’s Food Field], which is wrong. Ajmera is not his partner in any business.”