Orissa court issues notice to Hindu leader

A notice from the Cuttack District Civil Judge (senior division) has been issued to Hindu Jagaran Samukhya State president Ashok Sahu after a civil damage suit of Rs 50 crores was filed against him.

Sahu, a former Oriya IPS officer, had earlier accused a local church for planning a "conspiracy" to murder VHP leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati. With distorted documents and fake signatures, he claimed the arrest of the Christians from Beticola Parish Church Council of Baliguda, Kandhamal.

Refuting the claims, members of the parish council filed a defamation case against Sahu. They pointed that their signatures were faked by Sahu to defame them and their community.

"To draw home his point, Sahu had distributed certain fake documents among the media men in which our signatures were doctored," the church members claimed in the petition.

"The intention of Sahu was nothing but to lower our reputation in the estimations of others," it said.

Following a preliminary hearing in the case, the senior judge, asked "why he [Sahu] should not pay the damages to the petitioners."

The parish council has also filed a criminal case in Bhubaneswar SDJM court against Sahu.