Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia today challenged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to show the "moral and political courage" to agree to a day-to-day hearing in the defamation suit filed against him in an Amritsar court.
"It took just one appearance before the court to expose (Arvind) Kejriwal as a thorough coward," he said in a statement here.
"From a wild accuser, he has been reduced to a mere accused. The accused is now running for cover like a frightened hare. Instead of showing the confidence to ask for a speedy trial as an accused, he is seeking long gaps between hearings in the defamation case in which he is certain to face jail," Majithia claimed.
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"Why wait for six months even? You do not have to wait for
that long to put me behind bars. You can achieve that goal in a matter of weeks. All you have to do is agree to a day-to-day hearing, prove your charges regarding the drug trade and open the doors for a court conviction against me. Come and face me daily and get it done with.
"It won't be six months but just days or weeks before either you or I go to jail. Let the people see who ends up where. I dare you to take up my challenge," he said.
Majithia claimed that the only reason why Kejriwal was seeking long gaps between dates of hearing was he wanted his "nautanki" (theatrics) to carry on till the 2017 Assembly polls in Punjab after which he hoped to resort to his "favourite trick of apologising" as he and his party have always done after "every sin and crime".
"But this time, I won't let him wriggle out with this hypocrisy. I will pin him down. Only one of us will remain free and in politics now, it is either him or me," he said.
"Kejriwal, in Punjab, it is not the government that will send you to jail. It is the judiciary. Come and face me daily if you have the courage," said Majithia, referring to the AAP national convener's challenge of getting him arrested within six months or face arrest himself.
Kejriwal, along with AAP leader Sanjay Singh, got bail from an Amritsar court yesterday in the defamation case filed by Majithia against them and another AAP leader Ashish Khetan.
