Court defers arguments in defamation suit against Manoj Tiwari, Harish Khurana till July 9

A Rouse Avenue court on Monday recorded the statement of a witness as pre-summoning evidence and deferred till July 9 the arguments in a defamation suit against BJP Delhi president Manoj Tiwari and spokesperson Harish Khurana.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Samar Vishal was hearing a case filed by AAP's Delhi Jhuggi Jhopdi (JJ) cell president Sushil Chauhan alleging the two BJP leaders made a defamatory statement against him after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was slapped by a man on May 4.

The court recorded the statement of witness Pawan Kumar as pre-summoning evidence. Chauhan has already recorded his statement in the matter.

The two BJP leaders had allegedly posted a picture of Chauhan on Twitter and showed his photo at a press conference claiming that the attacker was an AAP member.

Appearing for Chauhan, lawyer Mohd Irshad told the court that the complainant was mistaken by people of his native village to be the person who slapped the chief minister.

The counsel submitted that his client had also been threatened by police and has not been able to convince people that it was an issue of mistaken identity.

Kejriwal was slapped allegedly by a man identified as Suresh.

The chief minister was campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in west Delhi when the incident took place. He was shaking hands with supporters from an open jeep when the man climbed onto the vehicle and landed a slap on his face.