Diphu (Assam): A court has issued a bailable arrest warrant against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a defamation case arising out of his tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational qualification.
First class magistrate, Diphu, Naba Kumar Deka Baruah, issued the warrant of Rs10,000 on Monday and summoned the AAP leader to appear before the court on 8 May.
Karbi Anglong Autonomous district council executive member Surjya Rongphar had filed the defamation case in the magistrate’s court on 26 December last year.
The magistrate had issued summons against the Delhi chief minister to appear in his court on 30 January last.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, through his lawyer Gurpreet Singh Uppal, had sought time from the court until 7 April, saying that it would not be possible for him to leave Delhi due to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls on 23 April and the nature of his work.
The magistrate in his order said on Monday, “On perusal of case record, it reveals that the accused Arvind Kejriwal has not appeared before this court on the earlier occasion on 30/01/2017, availing adjournment for long duration of more than two months by a prayer as submitted by his advocate although the accused was not dispense with personal attendance by this court as provided by Section 205(I) of the CrPC, 1973 as amended up to date.Considering the above, the petition of his advocate is rejected,” the order said.
