Harbhajan served court summons in Chandigarh

Chandigarh, Nov 2 (IANS) A city-based voluntary organisation Monday handed over court summons to cricketer Harbhajan Singh at his hotel room here, for a civil case it had filed against him last year for hurting the religious sentiments.

'The high court had given relief to Harbhajan Singh in the criminal case filed by us, in which we had accused him of hurting religious sentiments of people. Along with that, we had also filed a separate civil case against him to deter him from taking part in such activities in future,' Global Human Rights council (GHRC) president Arvind Thakur, who filed the petition, told IANS here.

'We have personally given summons to Harbhajan in the civil case today (Monday). The hearing is slated Dec 9. He has assured us of full cooperation and said that he would try to appear in the court if he is not engaged in anything else on the day,' he added.

Thakur had gone to Harbhajan's room in hotel Taj along with a court official and two deputy superintendents of police-rank officers of the Chandigarh police to serve the summons.

The cricketer is with the Indian team and here to play the fourth one-day match against Australia in neighbouring Mohali.

'The court has also summoned TV actress Mona Singh and producer of Colors channel Dec 9. We had also tried to deliver summons to Mona Singh when she came here last month but she refused to accept it,' Thakur added.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and Mona Singh, of 'Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin' fame, had performed a dance number on the reality show Ek Khiladi, Ek Hasina as mythological Ravana and Sita in October last year.

Following this, the GHRC filed a complaint against Harbhajan, Mona Singh and the programme director of the TV channel Colors for hurting religious sentiments.