Finance minister files civil as well as criminal case against Delhi CM * HC hearing on matter today
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday filed a criminal defamation case against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others at the Patiala House Court here.
The matter was heard in front of a packed courtroom, where Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Sanjay Khandelwal took cognizance of the offence and set the next date of hearing on January 5, 2016.
A recording of the pre-summoning evidence will be done that day, following which the court will summon Kejriwal and others on merit.
Earlier in the day, senior advocate Manik Dogra, representing Jaitley, also filed a civil suit in the High Court (HC) seeking Rs 10 crore in damages. The hearing on this matter has been listed for Tuesday.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who presented the case for Jaitley in court brought charges against six leaders from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that included Kejriwal, Deepak Bajpai, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas and Sanjay Singh.
The lawyer argued that "the defendant did not take a single penny" from the Delhi and District Cricket Association – a body Jaitley headed for 13 years.
In the complaint, Luthra asserted: "The accused persons individually and collectively undertook a false and defamatory campaign against Jaitley and his family members."
He also said that "Jaitley came from a distinguished family of lawyers and he has no family member who has even one paisa interest in business." The complaint, filed by Jaitely, was, thus, as a private individual.
Almost the entire cabinet and several top brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership flanked Jaitley, who personally came to the court to file the suit.
Present in the court were Smriti Irani, Union human resource development minister; Venkaiah Naidu, Union minister of urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation and parliamentary affairs; J P Nadda, Union minister of health and family welfare; Piyush Goel, minster of state for power, among other senior party leaders.
The Patiala House District Court saw heavy security, with companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) maintaining law and order as several hundred party members shouted slogans in favour of the BJP and against the AAP.
During the 35-minute-long hearing, Luthra presented articles published in the print and electronic media that were defamatory in nature. He even submitted tweets and posts on Facebook by the six accused as evidence.
The complaint has been filed under the provisions of Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for offence under Sections 400, 500, 501 and 502, read with Sections 34 and 35 of the IPC.
If the charges are proved, the maximum sentence is two years.
The AAP had alleged massive financial irregularities in the DDCA during Jaitley's tenure from 1999 to 2013.
Kejriwal: "Mr Jaitley should not try to intimidate us with a court case. Our fight against corruption will continue."
Kirti Azad: hello dear @arunjaitley hampar defemation file kar rahe ho na? Please karo na Don't take injunction, don't gag freedom of speech.
Mera naam kyon hata diya @arunjaitley #Aap ne toh mere letters dikhae theey, mujhpar karo na case, registered post se maine bheje theey
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