Court reserves decision on summoning CM

A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved its order on whether to summon Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Sanjay Singh on a civil defamation plea of a BJP youth wing leader seeking ₹1 as compensation from them.

The court heard the submissions of the counsel for the plaintiff and listed the matter for August 23 for clarifications and pronouncing its order.

Ankit Bhardwaj, the state executive member of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, a youth wing of BJP, has filed the civil defamation suit before the court seeking only ₹1 in damages from Kejriwal and Singh for allegedly sharing his pictures in media and falsely declaring him as the one who slapped former water minister Kapil Mishra when the latter was on hunger strike on May 10.

“The plaintiff assess the damages at ₹1 crore but the plaintiff has no knowledge of any valuable assets of the defendants so the plaintiff limits his claim to ₹1,” reads the civil suit.

Bhardwaj said the AAP leaders had wrongly accused him in media of assaulting Mishra while the person apprehended from the spot belonged to their own party.

In the complaint, Bhardwaj claimed Singh showed his Facebook profile picture on different news channels and declared him as the accused. He has claimed Kejriwal re-tweeted a tweet declaring him as the accused.

“It was revealed to the plaintiff the name of the person who attacked Mishra was also Ankit Bhardwaj. It is pertinent the person who attacked was apprehended at the spot and the incident as well as his arrest has been captured and broadcasted,” reads the civil suit.

Besides the civil defamation suit, Bhardwaj has also filed a criminal defamation complaint against Kejriwal and Singh.