NEW DELHI : A senior BJP leader has filed a defamation case against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and minister Atishi over their allegations of breaking the AAP by attempting to poach their MLAs.
The matter has been posted for recording of Pre Summoning Evidence on May 4 at the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Tanya Bamniyal of the Rouse Avenue Court.
On January 27, Kejriwal alleged a poaching attempt by BJP in a bid to topple the city’s elected government. Kejriwal said the saffron party contacted seven AAP MLAs, asking them to switch sides by offering Rs 25 crore each. Kejriwal said that the BJP told AAP MLAs that Kejriwal would be arrested soon.
Atishi claimed to have an audio clip of an ‘unknown’ BJP leader talking to an AAP MLA informing him about the “likely arrest of Kejriwal and the MLA-poaching plans.” The audio will be made public in a few days, she said. In the clip, the BJP leader is reportedly heard saying that Kejriwal is going to be arrested and that they would topple the AAP government after his arrest, Atishi added.
A delegation led by BJP president Virendra Sachdeva met Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora and sought a probe into the allegations.
On February 2, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police reached the official residences of Kejriwal and Atishi tried to serve both a notice asking them to furnish any evidence with regard to their claim.
BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor, who is the media head of the party in Delhi, now in its complaint to the Court stated that both Kejriwal and Atishi levelled allegations without any basis.
The complaint added that it is a repeated attempt of AAP and two accused persons to engineer these hollow and baseless allegations against the BJP to create an impression that BJP is anti-democratic and uses unlawful means to topple the AAP led Government in Delhi.