NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party leader and former TV anchor Ashutosh today moved a city court seeking a re-examination of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in vernacular Hindi in a defamation case filed by the BJP leader against him, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in the DDCA row.
The former journalist, who has himself been putting forth AAP's views in Hindi and English news channels with equal elan, moved the plea before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat, saying Jaitley be directed to testify again, now in Hindi, as the law mandated.
He claimed that as per law, the proceedings in Delhi courts should be conducted in either English or Hindi whichever language the litigants and counsel can understand.
Ashutosh has also sought video and audio recordings of the court proceedings while referring to the earlier hearing in which chaotic scenes were witnessed after a lawyer had allegedly threatened another counsel inside the courtroom.
The court reserved the order on the pleas for October 27.
It also granted an exemption to Kejriwal, AAP leader Raghav Chadha and others from personal appearance for the day after they referred to their political engagements.
Jaitley had on August 5 charged Kejriwal with making a series of false, scandalous and defamatory allegations, with regard to the alleged controversy, claiming that it had adversely affected his reputation.
Kejriwal and others had accused Jaitley of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which he was the president from 2000 to 2013, leading the minister to lodge defamation cases against them.
Kejriwal, Ashutosh, Chaddha, along with other AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas and Deepak Bajpai, were on March 25 put on trial in the case.
The notice was framed against the accused under section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC to which they had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
Jaitley had filed the complaint alleging that the accused had defamed him in a controversy regarding Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) which he headed for over a decade.
A civil defamation suit was also filed by Jaitley before the Delhi High Court in the matter seeking Rs 10 crore as damages.