NEW DELHI: A city court has closed a criminal defamation case against BJP leader Kapil Mishra after he tendered an unconditional apology to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain.
The complaint was filed by the minister against Mishra — a former MLA, who was sacked from the AAP, in 2017 for his defamatory statements against him and CM Arvind Kejriwal. The case was closed on Wednesday after Mishra agreed to tender an unconditional apology before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Vishal Pahuja.
“It is submitted by the accused (Kapil Mishra) that he is ready to make a statement before the court tendering unconditional apology. Complainant (Satyendar Jain) also submitted that in case the accused gives his statement before the court, he shall withdraw the present complaint,” the Court noted in the order.
After recording the statement of Mishra, who have joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as Jain, the court disposed of the defamation complaint as withdrawn.
At a press conference held in 2017, Mishra had accused Jain of handing over a bribe of Rs 2 crore to Kejriwal. After the development, Jain held a press conference on Thursday in which he said the unconditional apology means Mishra had no ground to such allegations and did it with a political purpose.
“The accusations made were extremely offensive which left me completely distressed,” said Jain.
The press conference was also addressed by AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj. “The incident proves that the BJP was behind the comments of Mishra. He failed to provide facts supporting his claim since he was never present at CM’s house. Yesterday, he submitted a written apology stating that the accusations he made were politically motivated, and wrong. He has tendered an unconditional public apology and assured non-repetition of the same,” said Jain.
AAP’s 30, mine is one: BJP leader
In response to Satyendra Jain’s allegations, Kapil Mishra tweeted that the AAP had apologised 30 times, in a veiled reference to defame cases filed by a senior Congress and BJP leaders against Kejriwal.
“AAP’s 30, mine is one. Elderly people have said that some matters should be learnt from the enemy. If AAP will hurl abuses at me after the compromise in defamation case, that will be applicable to Kejriwal, who has compromised about 30 times,” his tweet in Hindi said.