DDCA row:Jaitley to file defamation case against Kejriwal today

Finance minister Arun Jaitley will file civil and criminal defamation cases against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders on Monday amid a raging row over irregularities in the Delhi cricket administration.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley will file civil and criminal defamation cases against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders on Monday amid a raging row over irregularities in the Delhi cricket administration.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley(Reuters Photo)

Besides Kejriwal, cases will be filed against Aam Aadmi Party leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee.

Jaitley said on Sunday the cases would be being filed in his personal capacity against Kejriwal and others who have issued “false and defamatory” statements against him. Jaitley said he had instructed his legal team to institute civil defamation cases against Kejriwal and others in the Delhi high court and criminal defamation cases in the Patiala House courts.

He accused them of issuing false and defamatory statements against him and his family members.

Jaitley has chosen not to give any legal notice to Kejriwal and other AAP leaders asking them to apologise or face defamation cases. Instead, the cases will be filed straightaway in the courts.

The big guns from the AAP and BJP have traded fire amid a raging war of words between the two parties over alleged corruption in Delhi’s cricket association which, the city’s ruling party claims, deepened under Jaitley’s watch.

While the BJP and Jaitley pointed out that a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office had cleared him when the UPA was in power, political commentators said the Kejriwal and his party were merely regurgitating charges that have been in the public domain for long.

In a Facebook post, the finance minister struck back at AAP leaders for making allegations of corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association following a CBI raid at the office of chief minister Kejriwal’s principal secretary, saying “does free speech include the right to speak only falsehood.”

Jaitley has also rubbished allegations against his family members, saying, “I have no family member who has even one paisa interest in any form of business. Why should my family be part of a sports management business?