NEW DELHI: In a major setback to Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal, the High Court dismissed his plea to stay trial court proceedings in a criminal defamation case filed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against six AAP leaders, including the Kejriwal, on Monday.
The court said no prejudice would be caused to the accused by the parallel hearing of civil and criminal defamation cases. Both civil and criminal cases can go together, the court added. “No illegality or question of sustainability can be made out,” the court said, pronouncing the Delhi Chief Minister’s request “devoid of merit”.
In December last year, Jaitley had filed both civil and criminal defamation cases against Kejriwal and the other five AAP leaders for allegedly defaming him and sought Rs 10 crores in damages and their prosecution for offences. Jaitley has alleged that they had made defamatory statements against him and his family that they had made pecuniary gains by associating with 21st Century Media Pvt Ltd, a sports management firm. AAP leaders went against Jaitley alleging that over the alleged financial bunglings in DDCA.
Referring to certain allegations against DDCA, Kejriwal had said, “Wasn’t Jaitley the head of DDCA during 1999-2013 when these irregularities happened? When laptops were hired at Rs 16,000 per day when cost of renovation of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium escalated to Rs 144 crore from Rs 24 crore.”
“The companies that were given contracts in that period had same directors and same addresses. Does this not indicate towards corruption? How did this happen then? Who did it?,” he had then added.
Following which Jaitley knocked the doors of the court.
Kejriwal made allegations against Jaitley after Central Bureau of Investigation raided the office of his secretary Rajendra Kumar. Kejriwal had stated that the CBI raided his secretary office in a bid to get the inquiry reports of DDCA scam being probed by Delhi government.