Court records statement of complainant in defamation case against Manoj Tiwari, Harish Khurana

A Delhi court on Saturday recorded the statement of Aam Aadmi Party worker Sushil Kumar in connection with a defamation suit filed by him against BJP leaders Manoj Tiwari and Harish Khurana for allegedly making defamatory statements against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after he was slapped by a man during an election rally.

During the course of proceeding, the counsel of the complainant played the alleged defamatory video before the court.

He told the court that the issue came to the fore when his client went to his native place where people accused him of attacking the Delhi Chief Minister.

"Till date, I have not been able to convince people that it was an identity mistake. I was threatened by the police, too. Harish Khurana tweeted the defamatory content, which got widely circulated and harmed my reputation," Sushil told the court.

Sushil, President of Aam Admi Party Jhuggi Jhopdi (JJ) cell, recorded his statement before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Samar Vishal, who then slated the matter to July 1 when it will take the statements of two witnesses.

The court had on May 13, admitted a criminal defamation case against Tiwari and Khurana filed by the AAP worker.

"Both the BJP party leaders showed a photo of the attacker in the press conference and Twitter and claimed that he was an AAP member," Chauhan said in his petition, calling the allegations levelled by the BJP leaders, baseless.

On May 4, Kejriwal was slapped by a man, who was later identified as Suresh, in West Delhi while campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections.

The CM had stepped on to an open jeep and was shaking hands with supporters and waving at the gathering when Suresh wearing a maroon shirt climbed on to the vehicle and landed a slap on his face. AAP supporters immediately pulled him down and thrashed him.