Kolkata: Trouble doesn’t cease to chase Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. According to a PTI report, Kejriwal who is currently in Bengaluru for treatment has been told today to appear before a Delhi court on March 21. He was allowed exemption from personal appearance today since he was in Bengaluru and would return to Delhi on February 22. This is regarding a criminal defamation complaint filed by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and former Indian opening batsman and BJP leader, Chetan Chauhan against Kejriwal and former Indian cricketer and BJP MP, Kirti Azad.
According to the News Agency, Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra allowed Kejriwal’s plea for exemption. The court also gave bail to Azad on a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and surety of the same amount. Azad has been suspended by the BJP after he raised corruption allegations against former DDCA president and current Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. Azad got the summon as an accused in the same case.
Azad’s counsel gave an argument that the complaint was not maintainable as the Delhi High Court had appointed Justice Vikramajit Sen as an administrator of the DDCA. Advocate Sangram Patnaik, representing the DDCA and Chauhan, countered it saying the plea was maintainable since Chauhan was the vice-president of the DDCA when he filed the complaint. He also filed the complaint as an individual as well.
Kejriwal and Azad were summoned by the court on January 30. The court also stated that their allegations had damaged the image of the DDCA and its officials. The complaint also said that the defamatory statements by Kejriwal and Azad were for political mileage. The plea also alleged that Kejriwal in an interview to a news channel had not only spoken of financial irregularities in the DDCA, but also mentioned the existence of a sex racket in the cricketing body.
Kejriwal has time and again targeted Jaitley and even asked for his resignation so that an independent probe can be initiated into the alleged scams in the DDCA. Azad too, in the past has attacked Jaitley and asked for a free and fair inquiry. Kejriwal had even alleged that some Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) officers raided his office and even went through a file which would have exposed the finance minister. Jaitley countered the allegations and rubbished the charges levelled against him. “I left cricket administration in 2013. By referring to some facts of 2014 and 2015, he can’t drag me in,” he was quoted.
According to a report in The Indian Express, Azad in December 2015, released a video by Wikileaks4India and the Sun Star newspaper that purportedly showed that the addresses of the 14 companies paid by the DDCA for renovation works at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium did not match the addresses as given in the bills. Azad also asked 52 questions to Jaitley about his role in the DDCA and also his family’s involvement in Hockey India.
With utmost trust in the country’s judiciary, one hopes that truth will prevail. But there is no denying that the war of words will continue. When it comes to politicians, it is a common phenomenon. And knowing Kejriwal’s acrimonious attitude towards the BJP, there is more to the episode which will be unveiled in time.