A Delhi court today summoned Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in a defamation case by BJP leader Vijender Gupta. They have to appear before the court on July 16.

Gupta, in his defamation plea, alleged that they had “maligned” his image by accusing him of attempting to kill Kejriwal.

Vijender Gupta had sought Rs 1 crore in damages over their May 18 tweets in which the two top Aam Aadmi Party leaders had alleged that the BJP wanted to murder Kejriwal and that Kejriwal’s daily security reports were sent to the BJP office.

Sisodia had alleged that Gupta was involved in this “conspiracy”.

Their tweets came after Vijender Gupta accused Kejriwal of scripting the May 4 attack, when the Delhi chief minister was slapped during a road show while campaigning during the Lok Sabha elections. Kejriwal had quickly blamed the BJP-led government for the attack, underscoring that this was the ninth attack on him in five years and the fifth one after becoming the Delhi chief minister.

In the back and forth that followed on Twitter, the BJP leader alleged that the chief minister and his deputy had accused the BJP of “conspiring to kill him (Kejriwal)”.

The BJP MLA said the accusation had “maliciously defamed” him and hurt his goodwill and reputation within the political fraternity and beyond.

Gupta told the court that he couldn’t even think of hurting someone much less plan to assassinate Kejriwal.

First Published: Jul 08, 2019 17:19 IST