Bharat Ratna row: Case filed against PM, Sachin Tendulkar

Muzaffarpur (Bihar): A case was on Tuesday filed in a local court here challenging the selection of Sachin Tendulkar for Bharat Ratna and charging the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister with hurting peoples' sentiments.

The iconic cricketer too has been named as an accused in the case filed under Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (offences relating to cheating and dishonesty) 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 417 (punishment for cheating), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 120(B) (punishment of criminal conspiracy).

The case filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate S P Singh by local lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha said the selection of Sachin Tendulkar for the country's highest civilian honour and not legendary hockey player Dhyanchand has hurt the sentiments of the people of the country.

The petitioner has charged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Sports Minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and secretary to the Union Sports Ministry with hurting the people's sentiments by deleting Dhyanchand's name to accomodate Tendulkar's wish for the highest national honours.

The case has been admitted by the CJM, who fixed December 10 as the date of hearing. The petitioner has made JD(U) MP Shivanand Tiwari a witness in the case.

Tiwari had on Monday protested against the selection of Tendulkar on the ground that the star cricketer did not deserve the country's highest civilian award as he had made millions out of playing the game in contrast to Dhayanchand, who had done the country proud by leading the hockey team to gold medals in successive Olympic Games in the 1920s and 1930s.

The UPA government had announced its decision to confer Bharat Ratna on Tendulkar to honour his contributions to cricket within hours of his bidding adieu to cricket last week.