New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) Taking a serious view of the non-appearance of Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, a city court Tuesday issued a bailable arrest warrant against him for not deposing in a two-year-old case.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja issued the warrant against Singh against a bail amount of Rs.10,000 for Dec 22. The court noted that Singh had earlier on two occasions failed to appear before it, citing various reasons.

Singh’s counsel submitted before the court that the 53-year-old politician could not appear before it as he was busy campaigning for his party candidate from Firozabad parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

The court had earlier on two occasions granted him exemption from personal appearance due to his poor health.

Singh had registered a case against Barun Kumar Verma June 4, 2007, alleging that Verma tried to extort money from him in connection with hearing of a case in the Supreme Court relating to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Meanwhile, Verma through his counsel Anoop Kumar Sharma filed an application in the court requesting it to dismiss the criminal case on the ground that Singh had failed to appear before it despite several opportunities.

The court, however, went ahead with the recording of the statements of witnesses Gitanjali, a personal secretary of Singh, and Ajay Seth, the then landlord of the accused.