Defamation suit: Jaitley Records Statement Against Kejriwal, Five AAP leaders

05 January, New Delhi

A lower court here Tuesday recorded the statement of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a defamation case filed against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders Kumar Viswas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayi.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal after recording the statement adjourned the matter for further hearing on February 3.

The FM has sued them over their allegations of corruption in Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) , which Jaitley headed from 2000 to 2013. He has filed a criminal defamation case and a civil suit demanding Rs 10 crore in damages.

Jaitley along with India TV chairman Rajat Sharma today recorded their statements against Kejriwal and five other people who had made defamatory remarks. He submitted in the court that he “didn’t take a single penny” from the DDCA.

Jaitley also cited to the court that Facebook posts and tweets by the AAP had caused irreparable damage to his reputation. He further submitted that he had to offer an explanations of denial of these false allegations to large number of persons including his family members and relatives and eminent journalists like Rajat Sharma.

Sharma, editor in chief of India TV, said in the court that he knew Jaitley for the past 42 years and have close personal and family terms with him and his family. He also said that he was very disturbed about the reputation of the complainant when he saw the allegations that during the tenure of president DDCA an amount of Rs 57 crores had been siphoned off.

”I contacted Jaitley and asked about allegation, who assured me that there is no truth in these defamatory allegation.”The FM had personally filed case against the Delhi Chief Minister and others on December 21 and today he appeared for the second time in the court.