DDCA Row: Arun Jaitley, Arvind Kejriwal move court to settle criminal defamation case

A joint plea by Union Minister Arun Jaitley and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was moved before a Delhi court on Monday seeking to settle the criminal defamation case filed by the former against the AAP convenor in the DDCA row after the latter tendered an apology.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said the court will take up the application, filed by Jaitley and Kejriwal through their respective counsels, tomorrow.

"Each of the accused (Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai) have unequivocally withdrawn all the allegations made by them in print, electronic or social media against the complainant and his family members. Further they have offered their sincere apology to the complainant and his family members for any harm caused to the complainant's reputation as a consequence of the allegation made by the said accused.

"The complainant has accepted the apology tendered by the accused and in view thereof does not wish to proceed with the aforementioned complaint against the said accused," the application said.

The complaint is currently at the stage of examination of the complainant after the court framed the charges against the accused on March 25 last year.

The move by Kejriwal comes as no surprise as he has already apologised to some others, including Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Kapil Sibal's lawyer son Amit, who had filed defamation suits and complaints against him. Kejriwal was acquitted in the cases filed by both Gadkari and Amit Sibal.

Earlier in the day, the two leaders had moved the Delhi High Court jointly to "settle" their over two year old litigation regarding alleged defamatory statements made against the BJP leader after the AAP supremo apologised for his remarks.

Jaitley had accused Kejriwal and other AAP leaders -- Kumar Viswas, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai -- of making a series of "false, scandalous and defamatory" allegations against him, claiming it had adversely affected his reputation.

According to the joint application, besides Kejriwal, other AAP leaders -- Chadha, Singh, Ashutosh and Bajpai -- have apologised for their statements against Jaitley in connection with irregularities in DDCA.

Vishwas has not yet tendered an apology and hence the proceedings shall continue against him.

The AAP leaders had alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when Jaitley was its president from 2000 to 2013, prompting the minister to lodge defamation cases against them while denying all the allegations.