IANS/New Delhi
A Delhi court yesterday issued an arrest warrant against former Indian cricket captain-turned-MP Mohamed Azharuddin after he failed to appear in person before a court in a dud cheque case.
Metropolitan Magistrate Vikrant Vaid issued the warrant against Azharuddin even as his lawyer moved an exemption application yesterday on the ground that he was busy campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
“The exemption application is dismissed,” the court said while directing Azharuddin to appear in person on March 7.
Earlier, the Delhi court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him for not appearing in court on the day of the final verdict in the case, a lawyer said.
According to a complaint by Sanjay Solanki, he helped Azharuddin purchase property in Bandra in Mumbai for Rs10.5mn. Under the agreement to sell and purchase, Azharuddin agreed to pay double the initial amount of Rs10.5mn if the deal fell through due to his failure to comply with the terms.
When the deal did not mature, Azharuddin refused to pay double the amount, the complainant’s counsel Gurvinder Singh Talwar said. Azharuddin issued two cheques of Rs10.5mn each to the complainant, which were dishonoured, he said.
Azharuddin, during the framing of charges, claimed innocence and told the court that he did not know the complainant personally and met him for the first time in court.
He added that he made the payment to another person who had set the deal. “That person told me that he had paid the money to Solanki,” Azharuddin told the court on July 21, 2011.