No BJP MP challenged Kirti Azad’s allegations against Jaitley: Congress

Jaitley’s office said he filed civil and criminal defamation cases against Kejriwal and five members of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Kovai Venugopal issued notice to Kejriwal and other AAP leaders – Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai – on the suit by Jaitley seeking Rs 10 crore in damages for issuing allegedly false and defamatory statements against him and his family members.

CPM general secretary and parliamentary party leader Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said the Prime Minister had given hints to Jaitley to follow in L K Advani’s footsteps.

“Congress will suffer embarrassment in its attempts to defame Jaitley in a similar manner it did earlier when it targeted our senior leaders”, he said, in a reference to the opposition’s attack against Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje.

Speaking to party MPs during the course of the weekly meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, Modi reportedly said the Congress was making “baseless” and “manufactured” allegations against Jaitley. “When the RTI was on its way, did Arun Jaitley ask to keep sports out of it?”

A 2014 inquiry into the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) unearthed auditing errors and unaccounted expenses that were sanctioned during Arun Jaitley’s tenure.

Noting that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had always insisted on resignation of Congress leaders facing any controversy, he said there can not be double standards.

Jaitley refuted the allegations against him, saying the DDCA when headed by him gave a “proper” cricket stadium to the national capital.

“BJP today stood firmly behind Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, whose resignation has been demanded by Congress and the Left over his role in the alleged financial irregularities in the DDCA, saying he has an “impeccable character”. “Please do file”, Kirti Azad said in a tweet on Sunday.

Jaitley, who had been mentored by the party veteran, was the spearhead of the “defend Advani” campaign in the hawala case.

BJP MP Kirti Azad, who has levelled corruption charges again Jaitley, did not attend the meeting.

Punia, who released documents to support his claim, said Jaitley “tried to mislead Parliament today when he said the SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office), had not found him guilty of anything”. His father, Bhagawat Jha Azad, was a Congress Chief Minister in Bihar.