Charges against Kejriwal, Sisodia on Aug 23
A Delhi court on Tuesday fixed August 23 for framing charges against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in a criminal defamation complaint filed by advocate Surender Kumar Sharma.
Metropolitan magistrate Pranjal Aneja, who was scheduled to frame charges on Tuesday, was on leave.
The court had on August 2 passed order on framing of notice (charge) on the criminal defamation complaint filed against the two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and former party member Yogendra Yadav.
Yadav was a member of the National Executive of the AAP until 2015, when he was expelled for alleged anti-party activities. Later, he floated his own party — Swaraj India.
Sharma, in his complaint, alleged that in 2013 he was approached by volunteers of AAP who asked him to contest the Delhi Assembly elections on a party ticket, saying Kejriwal was impressed with his social services.
He filled up the application form to contest the polls after being told by Sisodia and Yadav that AAP’s Political Affairs Committee had decided to give him the ticket. However, it was later denied to him.
On October 14, 2013, the complainant claimed that articles in leading newspapers carried “defamatory, unlawful and derogatory words used by the accused persons” which have lowered his reputation in the society.
Opposing the complaint, the AAP leaders had submitted that cancellation or allotment of an election ticket is the prerogative of the party and the complainant had not divulged correct information about the cases pending against him.
The trial court had earlier granted bail to Kejriwal, Sisodia and Yadav, after they had appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against them.
The summons were issued on the complaint under sections 499, 500 (defamation) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC, with the trial court saying that there was prima facie material to summon the accused.