Jaitley to file defamation case against Kejriwal, Azad, AAP leaders

Arvind Kejriwal today ordered an inquiry into alleged corruption in Delhi’s cricket association when Arun Jaitley helmed it, prompting the finance minister to threaten defamation cases against the chief minister.

“We will continue to hold him corrupt in DDCA affairs”, AAP leader Sanjay Singh said. “It is only fair that I must mention that Shri Arun Jaitly whose name has figured in the news has been a valued and distinguished colleague of mine for nearly 37 years”, Subramanium said in a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The Congress on Monday demanded a parliamentary probe into alleged DDCA irregularities and sought the resignation of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who had been long at its helm, rejected the charges against him as “baseless”.

Mr. Jaitley, accompanied by union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu, personally appeared before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal and filed the suit alleging that the Delhi CM and other AAP leaders had defamed him by accusing that he was involved in the alleged corruption in DDCA.

Azad, along with former India skipper Bishen Singh Bedi and cricketer Surinder Khanna, claimed that a “Wikileaks4India” investigation has revealed that DDCA awarded contracts to fictitious companies.

Mr. Azad said the entire affair should be investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and other agencies to establish the money trail and see if there had been any evasion of taxes.

Earlier in the day, the AAP government chose to set up an inquiry commission to probe the financial bungling in the DDCA.

He was responding to Azad’s statement that there are many big allegations including that of a Rs 150 crore fraud, 14 bogus companies being floated and conflict of interest at DDCA. His office said the suit was filed in his personal capacity. He met Sonia Gandhi and they said we will fix Jaitley.

Jaitley denied Kejriwal’s allegations as “utterly baseless”.

“Jaitley is the Suresh Kalmadi of BJP”, AAP leader Ashutosh told the media, referring to the former Congress MP who was linked to the alleged corruption in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Shah’s summoning of Kirti Azad came a day after BJP general secretary Ram Lal called him over the same issue. “The companies that we have worked with have all got their documents in place and we have all the records with us which we can provide you”, he added.