A Punjab court today summoned Congress party chief Mallikarjun Kharge in a Rs 100 core defamation related to the party equating the banned Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) with Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Sangh-affiliated Vishwa Hindu Parishad, in its Karnataka Assembly election manifesto.

The Sangrur district court summoned the Congress President after a complaint from Hitesh Bhardwaj, the president of an outfit called “Bajrang Dal Hindustan.”

During the recently-concluded Karnataka assembly elections, the Congress in its manifesto compared Bajrang Dal with “anti-national organisations like SIMI and Al-Qaeda”, the petitioner said.