You told me to use the word crook: Ram Jethmalani to Kejriwal

In more humiliation for the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, veteran lawyer Ram Jethmalani has asked the former to question his conscience thereby reiterating the claims that the CM had told him to use more abusive words against Union Minister Arun Jaitley.

In a five-page letter, a copy of which has also been sent to Jaitley, the noted jurist has stated, "Ask your conscience, how many times you used worse abuses than a mere crook. You have told me to use the word 'crook a hundred times'. You have, a hundred times, told me to teach this crook a lesson."

"Incidentally, for the last couple of weeks, you only met me briefly. However, your assistant Raghav Chadha and advocate Anupam Srivastava have been briefing me on the matter. Of course, the law is settled that no suit for damages lies against parties and lawyers even if the suggestion made only in court judicial proceedings proves to be false or malicious," he said in the letter.

Jethmalani made these remarks after Kejriwal in his affidavit said it was "inconceivable that he would even think of instructing the senior counsel to use such objectionable words."

"The answering defendant (Kejriwal) vide letter dated July 19, has conveyed to the senior counsel directly that no instruction to use words like 'crook' and 'guilty of crimes and crookery' were ever given by him to the learned Senior counsel (Jethmalani)," Kejriwal said in an affidavit filed on Monday.

The affidavit was a reply, which Kejriwal had filed in the High Court after Jaitley had moved an application in the High court to expedite the proceedings of defamation against him.