 "Court to hear cases against Kejriwal, others on May 3")
A Delhi court today fixed May 3 for hearing five cases including three in which Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and members of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been charge sheeted for alleged unlawful assembly and other offences during their protests in 2012.
Kejriwal and others were charge sheeted for allegedly violating prohibitory orders during the protest and leading a march to the residences of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on coal block allocation scam.
Metropolitan magistrate Dheeraj Mittal fixed the cases for May 3 after the lawyers who appeared for the accused said the main counsel, Rahul Mehra, was not available for arguments and the additional public prosecutor sought time to go through the file.
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"Counsel for the accused submit that main counsel is not available for arguments on the discharge applications moved by them. Additional public prosecutor also seeks time to go through the file and advance arguments on discharge applications.
"In the circumstances, the matter is adjourned and be listed on May 3 for the purpose of arguments on discharge applications moved by the accused," the court said.
It also allowed the pleas of Kejriwal, Delhi's Education Minister Manish Sisodia, advocate Prashant Bhushan and various other accused for exemption from personal appearance before it for today only.
The court was hearing five separate cases lodged in 2012 against various members and top leaders of AAP in connection with the protests staged by them.
They were charge sheeted for various offences relating to rioting, unlawful assembly, use of force to obstruct public servants from discharging their duty and damaging public property during their protests in August 2012.
The accused persons had earlier filed plea for discharge, saying the cases were illegal, "clear abuse of process by police" and were "designed to harass them".