Delhi HC notice to Kejriwal, others in defamation suit

Jaitley on Monday filed a defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders and demanded Rs100mn in damages for linking him with alleged corruption.

The complainant, an advocate, has sought Kejriwal’s prosecution under sections 124A (sedition) and 500 (defamation) of the IPC.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had hit out at the Prime Minister demanding his resignation over what he called a “failed raid” on his office by the CBI.

Refering to Jaitley’s lawsuit, Kejriwal said he was surprised as to how a lawyer (Jaitley) could hurt himself because the Union Minister will be crossed examine by our lawyers for nearly one year.

“On December 15, the accused posted the remarks on his Twitter account which reads as, “Modi is a coward and a psychopath”.

The prime minister’s comments came a day after Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah described Jaitley as a man of honesty and integrity.

Dwivedi said he was aggrieved by the alleged defamatory and seditious remarks of Kejriwal. Azad braved “pressure” from party president Amit Shah to harangue Jaitley; many now speculate if this was a “deep” game to topple the senior minister who has a penchant for salacious gossip about cabinet and party colleagues and has enraged many with selective leaks in the media.

Turning Mr Modi’s defence into a political googly, opposition Congress at a press conference, inferred that it was an advice by Mr Modi to Mr Jaitley to step down from the Cabinet to pave way for a fair inquiry into the raging DDCA controversy.

“This process has gone on for two decades and you have cases of economic offences which are investigated by several agencies, state police, CBI and other agencies which requires an introspection and analytic view, a continuing mandamus alerts the investigation”, he said.

“Filing a defamation suit is Jaitley’s right”. Before elections AAP had promised to fight for death sentence for the convicts of the gangrape, but they have not done anything in the assembly on the Juvenile issue.

The Sena also said that the previous Parliament session was rocked by allegations against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and alleged that people who were trying to defame her were from her party as well.

He was replying to a question on Modi comparing the charges of corruption against Jaitley with the Hawala case faced by Advani in the 90s, in which he had come clear at the end.