A Delhi court will pronounce on 2 January its order on the applications moved by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leader Raghav Chadha seeking various documents in a criminal defamation complaint filed against them by Union Minister Arun Jaitley in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) row.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat, who was scheduled to pronounce the order on 18 December, had earlier changed the date for the next hearing as “it was not ready” at that time.
Both the accused have sought various documents reportedly filed by Jaitley along with the complaint, saying the copies they received earlier were not clear.
The accused have also sought various documents from the DDCA and certain letters reportedly written by former cricketers to Jaitley highlighting corruption in the cricket association.
Jaitley had on 15 December opposed the applications alleging that Kejriwal and Chadha were seeking a “roving and fishing enquiry” in the case and that the accused wanted to delay the trial in the case.
Jaitley had on 5 August charged Kejriwal, Chadha and the other accused, AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sajay Singh and Deepak Bajpai, with making a series of false, scandalous and defamatory allegations, with regard to the alleged controversy, claiming that it had adversely affected his reputation.
The AAP leaders had accused Jaitley of financial irregularities in the administration and running of DDCA of which he was the president from 2000 to 2013, leading the minister to lodge defamation cases against them.
All the six accused were on 15 March put on trial in the case. The notice was framed against the accused under section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC to which they had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
Jaitley had filed the complaint alleging that the accused had defamed him.
A civil defamation suit was also filed by Jaitley before the Delhi High Court in the matter seeking Rs 10 crore as damages.
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