Kejriwal, others to face trial in Jaitley defamation case

A Delhi court on Saturday framed notices against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders in a defamation case filed by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley.

The other AAP leaders against whom notices were issued are Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai.

In December 2015, Jaitley had filed a complaint alleging that Kejriwal and the remaining five AAP leaders had made defaming statements against him regarding his tenure as the Delhi District Cricket Association (president from December 1999 to 2013.

“A criminal complaint has been filed against the six accused because they had made defamatory statements against Arun Jaitley on Twitter, Facebook and in the media,” said Jaitley’s counsel Sidharth Luthra.

Luthra said the accused have been delaying the proceedings of the matter by filing various frivolous applications, out of which some have been dismissed by the Court.

“Again on Saturday, frivolous objections were taken to delay the case, which was dismissed by the court, and the notices were framed against the accused,” said Luthra.

Besides the criminal defamation case, Jaitley has also filed a civil defamation suit before the High Court seeking ₹10 crore in damages from Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders for issuing allegedly false and defamatory statements against him and his family in connection with alleged irregularities in DDCA when he was its president.

AAP leaders and their counsels alleged they were threathigh ened during court proceeding.

“Court proceeding was disrupted for nearly half an hour by a person standing alongside the complainant’s legal team. We received death threats and verbal abuses from him,” said Rahul Mehra, defence counsel.

Luthra denied the allegations. “There was an AAP Mla-cumdelhi advocate who began arguing with another lawyer. Those who were fighting were not part o our legal team. The judge asked both to go out of the court. This was actually another attempt to delay the proceedings.”

Kejriwal and the others have pleaded not guilty. The trial wil commence on May 20.