E-Paper
Court quashes Kejriwal’s appeal against in-person appearance in defamation case
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
A Delhi court has dismissed a plea by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging the order by magistrate for him appear in person in the court in connection with a criminal defamation case filed by BJP leader Karan Singh Tanwar.
The court said the CM has been not called for the offence of defamation committed pursuant to a ctriminal conspiracy; but simply defamation.
Delhi government spokespersons did not respond to requests for a comment on the issue.
Additional sessions judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar said that each person arrayed as an accused in the complaint has been summoned for his individual act of defamation.
“The procedure which magistrate will follow is in his discretion as per the provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code. It would be premature to make any comment, regarding the procedure which might be followed by the learned ACMM. Therefore, this argument of the learned counsel for the revisionist cannot be taken up appropriately at this stage,” the judge said in his order dated October 3.
Tanwar had filed a criminal defamation complaint against Kejriwal, and AAP leaders Amanatullah Khan, Surender Singh and Dilip Pandey.
He alleged they had levelled allegations against him in the media that he was involved in the conspiracy to murder MM Khan, an estate officer with the NDMC who was shot dead on May 16 last year. Tanwar alleged that the AAP leaders tried to “malign and ruin (his) image and political career”.
It had sought prosecution of the four AAP leaders for the alleged offences of defamation and criminal conspiracy under the IPC.
On July 23, 2019, the court had summoned all the accused to appear which was subsequently challenged by Kejriwal, contending that the case was politically motivated.
