CM Kejriwal summoned over defamation case filed by BJP

NEW DELHI: 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 rolls in the national capital.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal directed Mr Kejriwal, Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, MLA Manoj Kumar and AAP 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 BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of voters from the electoral rolls here.

“Allegations of the respondents (Mr Kejriwal and others) are prima facie defamatory and refers to complainant Bhartiya Janta Party,” 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 complainant and his witnesses to arrive at the conclusion for this stage of this case.

“Therefore in view of the aforesaid discussion 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 malafide” defamatory statements against the BJP.

“All the accused made accusations against BJP in a calculated manner with the sole intention to portray a negative image of BJP in relation to the voters belonging to certain sections of society viz. Bania, Poorvanchalis, Muslims etc. The reputation of the complainant has been damaged beyond repair,” Mr Babbar said.

He claimed the AAP leaders had, during a press conference held in December last year, alleged that on the directions of BJP, names of 30 lakh voters had been deleted by the Election Commission of India. The allegation was also tweeted by Mr Kejriwal.