Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court for quashing the defamation complaint filed by BJP leader Vijender Gupta against him and summons issued to him in the matter.
Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, who appeared for Kejriwal, argued that his client had only tagged the tweet of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and then wrote his own tweet, which does not contain the alleged defamatory statement. He can be tried for his own comment and not for the comment made by someone else.
"Since there are more than 3000 retweets, will those people be considered as accused," he asked.
After hearing the argument, Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri adjourned the matter. The case is now listed for August 23.
Kejriwal and Sisodia both are currently on bail in connection with the defamation suit filed by Gupta who had alleged that Kejriwal accused him of a 'conspiracy' to kill him.
The defamation suit has been filed under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for "willfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously" defaming the complainant, "on wholly and completely false, frivolous, unjustifiable and scandalous grounds and thereby, harming the goodwill and reputation of the complainant, within the political fraternity, media, friends, family, colleagues and in society at large."
The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Samar Vishal had earlier recorded the statement of Gupta and two witnesses.
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After concluding the pre-summoning evidence, the court had issued the summons against Kejriwal and Sisodia and asked them to appear before it on July 16.
While recording his statement before the court, Gupta had said that he was "deeply hurt by the defamatory and false allegations made by both the accused persons".
The BJP MLA claimed that the false allegations were made to impact the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.
He submitted that after both the AAP leaders, who have millions of followers on Twitter, tweeted, he started receiving calls from people. "Kejriwal's tweet was re-tweeted around 3000 times while Sisodia's tweet was re-tweeted around 1300 times," Gupta contended.
During the Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal, by citing a tweet by Gupta, had told a Punjabi news channel that BJP was trying to get him killed by his own Personal Security Officer (PSO).
In his tweet, Gupta had said, "Before the slapgate on May 4, @ArvindKejriwal asked the liaison officer to lift the security cover from his vehicle. The chief minister's instruction is registered in the daily diary entry (of the police). Since I had disclosed about it, AAPcould not get electoral gain of the incident. Out of frustration, Kejriwal says PSO reports to BJP."
Quoting Gupta's tweet, the Chief Minister had replied, "Why BJP wants to get me killed? What have I done? I am not constructing schools and hospitals for the people of the country."
He had said, "This is the first time when a positive politics has started on schools and hospitals in the country. BJP wants to finish it. But I will fight till my last breath.