Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has filed a fresh defamation suit of Rs 10 crore against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over his counsel Ram Jethmalani allegedly using an objectionable word in court last week. The case has been filed in the Delhi High Court.
During Jaitley’s cross-examination in the Delhi High Court on May 15 and May 17, Ram Jethmalani had called the Finance Minister “a crook”. Agitated over the use of the word, Jaitley had asked if the comment against him had been “authorised” by the Delhi Chief Minister. After Jethmalani claimed that it had Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘authorisation, Jaitley threatened that there would be “aggravated damages.”
Jaitley filed a fresh civil defamation suit through his counsel Manik Dogra stating that Jethmalani used abusive language in the open court, which was also recorded in the order sheet. He said that the words used for him warrant a separate defamation suit.
Jaitley had in the past filed a civil defamation suit seeking Rs 10 crore in damages from Kejriwal and other AAP leaders including Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai for accusing him of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) during his tenure as the president from 2000 to 2013.
Jaitley has denied all the allegations levelled against him by the AAP leaders terming them as baseless. Apart from the civil defamation suit, Jaitley had also filed a separate criminal defamation case in the trial court against the AAP leaders. Not just Jaitley, the AAP leaders had allegedly attacked Jaitley’s family members on various platforms including social media.
