Rajkot

Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja today filed a defamation suit against the editor of a Rajkot-based evening newspaper for defamation, seeking damages of Rs 51 crore.

Principal senior civil judge P B Parmar issued a summons to Satish Mehta, editor and owner of `Aabtak’, asking him to remain present in the court on February 4.

According to the suit, the paper had on November 20, 2014 published a report alleging that Jadeja and his business partner Jenesih Ajmera had links with Bali Dangar who is facing charges of land grabbing and extortion.

Jadeja owns a restaurant, `Jaddu’s Food Field’, on Kalavad road in the city.

“We had to move the court after we failed to get response to legal notices sent to the editor,” said advocate Hiren Bhatt, Jadeja’s lawyer.

“The paper had published the news without verifying it and the news has damaged the reputation of my client. Jadeja has no links or has never met Dangar in his life. The newspaper says that Ajmera is Jadeja’s partner in the restaurant, which is wrong. Ajmera is not his partner in any business,” said advocate Bhatt.

The editor of the eveninger could not be contacted.

© Copyright PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of any PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.