HC accepts Vishwas’ apology to Jaitley

NEWDELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday accepted the apology tendered by dissident Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas for levelling allegations against Union minister Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley had lodged the ~10 crore defamation suit in December 2015 against Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders after they had alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association when the Union minister was its president. The BJP leader had denied all the allegations.

NEWDELHI: AAP leader and founding member of the party, Kumar Vishwas, has written a letter to Arun Jaitley apologising for allegations of corruption made against the Union minister during his tenure as president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

Jaitley accepted the apology, after which the Delhi high court closed a defamation suit filed by the Union minister against Vishwas. Earlier, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and four other AAP leaders had apologised to Jaitley for their remarks against the minister.

In his letter, Vishwas said Kejriwal feared losing his chief minister’s position to his deputy Manish Sisodia if he was convicted of making false allegations.

“During the course as the cases progressed, legal experts informed Kejriwal that if he is found guilty, then he might be sent to jail for a few days. If that happens, then he will have to leave the chief minister’s post for a few days and make Manish Sisodia as the CM. “Under these circumstances, Kejriwal feared that when he returned, Sisodia would not return the CM’s position to him. This is the reason why, he first tried to settle the matter through different people and when he was unsuccessful, he started apologising by writing letters,” Vishwas alleged.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said he was not aware of the letter and declined to comment.

While apologising , Vishwas said he regretted the statements made against Jaitley and said the remarks were made at Kejriwal’s instructions.

“...Aam Aadmi Party also followed the traditions of the political parties where the party workers stood by the statements made by the top leadership of the party. We, without weighing the truth and without suspecting our leader, reiterated whatever he (Kejriwal) said...” Vishwas’s letter read.

Vishwas also claimed that being a friend and founding member of the party, he had cautioned Kejriwal not to make such statements without any evidence. “However, he (Kejriwal) shouted at me and said that all the evidences that he has are true like his book ‘Swaraj’,” Vishwas said.