Arrest warrant out for Azharuddin

Feb 19 —An Indian court has issued an arrest warrant for former Indian cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin for his repeated failure to appear before the court in connection in a cheque bounce case.

Indian private television channel NDTV in a report said the New Delhi court issued the non-bailable warrant on Friday against Congress MP Azharuddin.

The court issued the order against Azhar for not appearing before it after rejecting his counsel's application seeking exemption from personal appearance from the Moradabad constituency in India.

The NDTV report said metropolitan magistrate Vikrant Vaid dismissed the application which said Azhar was busy in the election campaigning in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

According to the complaint, Azhar wanted to sell his Mumbai-based property, worth around Rs 45 million rupees, which was jointly owned by him and his estranged wife Sangeeta Bijlani.

The complainant Sanjay Solanki, a Delhi-based businessman, approached Azhar to purchase the property and the deal was finalised after Solanki paid 15 million rupees in advance to Azhar.

But due to some marital dispute, Azhar refused to sell the property after some time and agreed to pay the money back as per the agreement. He had issued a cheque of 15 million rupees to Solanki in 2008, but it was dishonoured by the bank.

Later, Solanki approached Azhar again and the MP issued two fresh cheques in the last two years, but those too were dishonoured by the bank.

Then Solanki then went to the court.