Taking his “sorry” count to four, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Monday apologised to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. (File Photo)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leaders Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai have tendered written apologies to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the DDCA defamation case. A joint plea was moved by Jaitley and Kejriwal to “settle” their over two year old litigation regarding alleged defamatory statements made against the BJP leader after the AAP supremo apologised for his remarks.
The joint application was mentioned before Justice Manmohan by advocates Manik Dogra and Anupam Srivastava, who appeared for Jaitley and Kejriwal, respectively. The court agreed to list the matter for hearing before the appropriate bench tomorrow if no technical objection is raised by the registry.
In separate letters, dated April 1, the AAP leaders offered their “sincere apology” to Jaitley and to his family members “for any harm caused to your reputation” as a consequence of the allegations. Kejriwal also underlined that senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani’s comments against Jaitley in the court were made without his consent. Jaitley had filed a separate defamation case over Jethmalani’s comments. Later, Jethamalani had stepped down as Kejriwal’s lawyer in the case.
The leaders wrote that they made the allegations based on papers furnished to them by individuals who claimed to have first-hand knowledge into the affairs of DDCA. “However, I have recently discovered that the information and the imputations contained therein are unfounded and unwarranted and I was clearly misinformed into making these allegations,” the apology letters stated. However, AAP founder-member turned rebel Kumar Vishwas has not tendered his apology yet.
The apology is part of Kejriwal’s decision to settle all pending cases of defamation against him to “refocus” his time and energy in matters related to governance. He has already settled defamation cases slapped against him by Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Amit Sibal, son of Congress leader Kapil Sibal. There are about 20 cases pending against Arvind Kejriwal and over 30 litigations across different courts.
Jaitley had in December 2015 filed a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders– Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai. They had alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when Jaitley was its president. The BJP leader had denied all these allegations.
Jaitley had also filed a separate Rs 10 crore defamation case against Kejriwal after his then lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, had used objectionable words against Jaitley during his cross-examination in the first suit.
Meanwhile, Kumar Vishwas has refused to apologies to Jaitley. Vishwas did not move any plea to settle the litigation. So, the defamation case against him will continue. “He (Vishwas) will not apologise and pursue the cases that have been filed against him,” his close aide Prabudh Kumar said.