Jaitley: CM’S counsel yet to ask questions on defamatory remarks
NEW DELHI: Union minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that he has been cross-examined “eight times” by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s counsel, who have not asked any questions on the alleged defamatory remarks for which he had filed a libel suit against the AAP leaders.
Instead of asking questions related to the allegations, Kejriwal’s counsel were going “all around the world”, he said.
“There were two defamatory imputations made and eight hearings have already been done and not a single question has been asked on that and you are going all around the world. This is when the question of relevancy comes,” Jaitley told the HC’S joint registrar Rakesh Pandit.
Jaitley said this at the end of the over one-and-a-half hour hearing in the ₹10-crore civil defamation suit filed by the BJP leader against Kejriwal and five AAP leaders.
Senior advocates Rajiv Nayyar and Sandeep Sethi and advocate Manik Dogra, representing Jaitley, said the AAP leaders wanted to prolong the litigation and have not concluded the cross-examination even after eight hearings.
Senior counsel Anoop George Chaudhari and advocate Anu- pam Srivastav, appearing for Kejriwal, said they would take some more time to cross-examine the finance minister.
The court listed the matter for further proceedings on November 30, when Jaitley’s cross-examination would continue.
Jaitley, 64, was present in the court for the eighth round of cross-examination in the defamation suit filed by him against Kejriwal and AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai, for accusing him of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which he was the President from 1999 to 2013. The allegations were denied by the Union minister.
During the hearing, Jaitley claimed that suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad had also made false and motivated complaint and cited reasons for it.