A court in Hyderabad, Telangana on Friday issued a non-bailable warrant against senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh for not appearing before it in a criminal defamation case filed against him in 2016, PTI reported.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader SA Hussain Anwar had filed the case against Singh, saying that he had defamed party chief Asaduddin Owaisi by claiming that his party was contesting elections in other states only to make money.

The counsel for the petitioner, Mohammed Asif Amjad, said he had issued legal notices to Singh and the editor of an Urdu daily which carried Singh’s comments seeking an apology and then moved the court as they had failed to respond.

Amjad said the newspaper editor filed a petition seeking exemption from appearing personally while Singh failed to appear in court and did not file a petition seeking exemption, following which the judge issued a non-bailable warrant against the Congress leader.

The court has posted the matter for further hearing on January 3.