Jaitley takes Kejriwal to court for slander
Delhi CM, 5 other AAP leaders face criminal and civil defamation cases now
Jaitley’s entire public life is like an open book and dedicated to the country... how the DDCA functioning comes under the preview of this inquiry commission is a matter of legal debate... If the AAP thinks it can malign Jaitley’s image, it is day-dreaming.
AMIT SHAH, BJP president
NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley sued Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and five members of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for slander on Monday, hitting back over allegations of corruption against him in the running of the city’s cricket body.
Jaitley personally went to a Delhi trial court under tight security to file a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal and five AAP members for making “false and defamatory” statements about his former role as chief of the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA).
Earlier in the day, his lawyers lodged in Delhi high court a civil suit against the AAP leaders, seeking ` 10 crore in damages. Besides the Delhi chief minister, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai have been made defendants in the case.
“Jaitley has not taken any pecuniary advantage from DDCA at all. There are DDCA records which can be summoned,” the minister’s lawyer Siddharth Luthra told the trial court. “These statements by the AAP leaders are politically motivated,” he added.
Taking cognisance of Jaitley’s criminal complaint, the trial court fixed January 5 for recording his evidence.
In a sight rare in Indian politics, Jaitley walked briefly to the trial court accompanied by several cabinet colleagues, including Venkaiah Naidu and Smriti Irani, even as hundreds of party supporters raised anti-AAP slogans.
The courtroom action came on a day the AAP government said it was calling a special session of the assembly to institute an inquiry by Gopal Subramaniam, a former solicitor general, into the affairs of the DDCA. The special session will be held on Tuesday.
The chief minister hit back at Jaitley on Twitter after the criminal and civil suits, asking Jaitley to prove his innocence to an independent inquiry panel.
“Jaitley should not try to intimidate us with court cases. Our fight against corruption will continue,” Kejriwal tweeted. Later on Monday, news agency PTI quoted an official in the chief minister’s office as saying that eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani will represent Kejriwal, adding that the AAP chief would seek daily hearings.
The strained ties between the AAP and BJP worsened last week when the CBI raided Kejriwal’s Delhi office in connection with a corruption case involving his principal secretary.
In turn, Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of waging a political vendetta and branded him as “a coward and a psychopath”, alleging officers were sent to find files related to “the DDCA scam that implicates Jaitley”.
Jaitley has since rejected the claims repeatedly and has described them as Kejriwal’s “propaganda technique to deflect attention when you yourselves are in the dock”.