Delhi HC seeks Vijender Gupta response on Arvind Kejriwal defamation case

Appearing for Kejriwal, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa and advocate Arunadhri Iyer, has claimed that he has not named Gupta in his tweet or re-tweet.

The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the response of BJP leader Vijender Gupta on a plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking quashing the summons issued in a defamation case filed by BJP Vijender Gupta against the latter.

Gupta had filed the defamation suit, alleging that his image was maligned when Kejriwal allegedly accused him, on Twitter, of being part of an alleged “conspiracy” to kill Kejriwal. Gupta had accused the CM and the deputy CM of “maligning” his image. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri issued notice to Gupta seeking their stand on Kejriwal’s plea by November 20. While seeking the response, the court remarked that prima facie it appears that trial would be required to decide if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief’s re-tweet of deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s tweet was defamatory.

Appearing for Kejriwal, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa and advocate Arunadhri Iyer, has claimed that he has not named Gupta in his tweet or re-tweet.

Gupta had filed the defamation suit, alleging that his image was maligned when Kejriwal allegedly accused him, on Twitter, of being part of an alleged “conspiracy” to kill Kejriwal. Gupta had accused the CM and the deputy CM of “maligning” his image.

In his plea, Kejriwal contended that he has neither made a defamatory comment nor mentioned Gupta by name.

After Kejriwal was slapped in May this year during the general election campaign, he had alleged on Twitter that there was a conspiracy to get him murdered by his own personal security officer. In response, Gupta had said that Kejriwal was slapped because he had relaxed his security cordon.

The matter would be now heard on November 20.