A Delhi court on Friday summoned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in a defamation case filed by the BJP over his comments on deletion of voters’ names from the electoral list in the Capital.
To appear before court
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal directed Mr. Kejriwal, Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, MLA Manoj Kumar and Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Atishi Marlena to appear before the court on April 30.
BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, who moved the petition on behalf of the party’s Delhi unit, has sought proceedings against them for harming the reputation of the BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of voters from the electoral rolls.
“Allegations of the respondents [Mr. Kejriwal and others] are prima facie defamatory and refers to complainant BJP,” the court said.
“The inquiry as contemplated under Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been duly conducted by examining the authorised representative of the complainant and his witnesses... there exists sufficient grounds to proceed against all the respondents,” it said.
The court had earlier taken cognisance of the defamation complaint filed against Mr. Kejriwal and others by Mr. Babbar, which alleged that they had made certain “deliberate and mala fide” defamatory statements against the BJP.
Mr. Babbar, in the complaint, had said that the AAP leaders, during a press conference held in December last year, alleged that on the directions of the BJP, names of 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali and Muslim community had been deleted by the Election Commission of India.
‘Negative image’
“All the accused made accusations against BJP in a calculated manner with the sole intention to portray a negative image of BJP ,” read the complaint.
The allegation was also tweeted by Mr. Kejriwal, it claimed.