Defamation suit against Kejriwal: Court records statement of two witnesses

A special court on Thursday recorded the statement of two witnesses in connection with a defamation suit filed by Delhi BJP leader Vijender Gupta against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia.

Deepak Bansal, State Secretary of Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha and Anurag Malik, a law student from Delhi University, appeared before the MP MLA special court to record their statement.

The court had, yesterday, recorded the statement of Gupta, who had filed the suit against Kejriwal and Sisodia for allegedly "maligning" his image after the duo accused him of being part of an alleged "conspiracy" to kill the AAP chief.

 

After concluding the pre-summoning evidence in the defamation case, the court, slated the matter for arguments to July 8.

While recording his statement before the court yesterday, 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 which were held in the last phase.

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, AAP could 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.