Delhi HC closes suit against Vishwas in DDCA case

New Delhi: Backtracking on his remarks made earlier, disgruntled Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and party founder Kumar Vishwas on Monday apologised to senior BJP lead-er Arun Jaitley in a def-amation case filed against him by the Union finance minister. Mr Jaitley has now withdrawn a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Mr Vishwas after the politician apologised for calling the Union minister “corrupt”. The poet-turned-politician had said that he will not tender an apology and take the case to a logical end.

The court disposed of the suit in which the leader was the only one against whom the defamation suit remained after Kejriwal and four other AAP leaders — Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai — had tendered unequivocal apology to Mr Jaitley in the Rs 10 crore defamation suit filed against them by the union minister.

“We have accepted it (apology),” Mr Jaitley’s lawyer Manik Dogra said after the AAP leader submitted a written apology in the Delhi high court. Mr Vishwas has reportedly now sought withdrawal of the civil defamation case. It added that Mr Jaitley has accepted the apology.

Mr Vishwas, through his advocate Amit Yadav, tendered the apology to Mr Jaitley and his family members for causing any harm to them. The development is significant because Mr Vishwas had recently told the court that his remarks were based on the facts shared by Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal.

Earlier, Mr Kejriwal had apologised to the Union minister for publicly accusing him of being involved in corruption as the head of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) between 1999 and 2013. After Mr Kejriwal had apologised, Mr Vishwas had targeted him for bowing down to the pressure and running away from the battleground.

He had said that people who had supported him are now becoming the victim of his political ambitions.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court accepted the apology tendered by Mr Vishwas. Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw noted that Mr Vishwas, in a letter submitted in the court on Monday, has without any reservation, unequivocally withdrawn all the allegations levelled against Mr Jaitley.

The court disposed of the suit in which Mr Vishwas was the only one against whom the defamation suit remained after Mr Kejriwal and four other AAP leaders — Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai– had tendered unequivocal apology to Jaitley in the Rs 10 crore defamation suit filed against them by the union minister.

In early April, Mr Jaitley and Mr Kejriwal had moved joint petitions before a Delhi court to settle the two-year-old defamation suit after Mr Kejriwal gave a written apology to Mr Jaitley.

“Though we belong to two different political parties, I believe that we should end the unsavoury litigations between us...” Mr Kejriwal had written. He had been on an apology spree to extricate himself from a tangle of defamation suits.

In a previous hearing, Mr Vishwas had told the court that before apologising to Arun Jaitley, he would want to know if Arvind Kejriwal lied when the chief minister said his allegations against the union minister were based on reliable documents. Mr Vishwas had then told the court that he needed more time to decide what kind of statement he would give to ensure the defamation case against him is dropped.

When the Delhi chief minister apologised to Arun Jaitley, Mr Kejriwal was derided by BJP leaders on social media.