A Delhi court has accepted the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s plea seeking summoning of records of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) in a criminal defamation complaint filed by him against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders.
In his application filed before CMM Sanjay Khangwal, Jaitley had sought summoning of records of DDCA for the relevant period in which he was the President of the cricketing body.
Jaitley on 5 January had recorded his statement in a defamation case.
His decision to file defamation had come hours after Kejriwal government had announced it was forming a probe panel headed by renowned lawyer Gopal Subramanium to investigate corruption in Delhi District Cricket Association.
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Jaitley was the president of the Delhi cricket body for over a decade, during which period the alleged corruption took place.
The court is currently recording pre-summoning evidence in the criminal defamation complaint filed by Jaitley.
Kejriwal is being represented by the eminent Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani. Based on Jaitley’s statements, the court will decide if the AAP leaders and the Delhi chief minister will be summoned.
It is expected that Jethmalani will cross question the finance minister. Analysts say that Jaitley as a senior union minister being cross examined by Jethmalani will be embarrassing.
Jethmalani, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP on BJP ticket, has been extremely critical of Jaitley.
Suspended BJP MP and former India cricketer, Kirti Azad has been leading the battle against the rampant corruption in DDCA. He had challenged Jaitley to file a defamation case against him, a statement that contributed to his suspension from the saffron party.
Besides Kejriwal, other AAP MLAs who Jaitley has filed defamation case against are Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai.