NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has sought quashing of summons issued to him as an accused in a criminal defamation case for re-tweeting an allegedly defamatory video.
Kejriwal has challenged in the Delhi High Court two orders of a trial court which had refused to quash the summons against him.
A magistrate court had summoned Kejriwal to appear before it on August 7, after a criminal complaint by the founder of social media page, ‘I Support Narendra Modi’, alleged that the chief minister leader had re-tweeted the video, circulated by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in May 2018.
The Aam Aadmi Party national convener challenged the magistrate’s order before a sessions court, which dismissed his plea.
He then challenged the sessions court’s order in the high court, saying that the trial court had failed to appreciate the fact that his tweet was not intended or likely to harm complainant Vikas Sankrityayan.
The plea said the trial court erred in not providing any reasons for issuance of summons and the orders were ex-facie devoid of judicial application of mind.
Sankrityayan claimed the YouTube video with the title ‘BJP IT Cell Part II’ was circulated by Rathee, who lives in Germany, “wherein number of false and defamatory allegations were made”.
Regarding Kejriwal, he said the chief minister re-tweeted without checking its authenticity.“The complainant alleges that the allegations made against him in this video are false, malicious and defamatory and it has lowered the reputation of the complainant in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society. So far, no proof has been tendered on the allegations,” Sankrityayan’s complaint said.