Delhi court allows Kejriwal's plea challenging summons in defamation complaint over 'objectionable' tweets

A Delhi court on Tuesday allowed the revision plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging magistrate court's order issuing summons against him in a defamation complaint filed by a local BJP leader Rajesh Kumar for allegedly posting "objectionable" tweets.

After hearing the arguments in the matter, session judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar decided to set aside the magistrate court order, which had earlier issued summon against Kejriwal over his tweets.

A magistrate court had earlier issued summons against Kejriwal in a defamation complaint filed by local BJP leader Rajesh Kumar for allegedly posting "objectionable" tweets.

In his complaint, Rajesh Kumar had stated that he was shocked and surprised to see a tweet by Arvind Kejriwal saying that "members of BJP keep roaming around the country and are raping Hindu girls".

"Kejriwal has successfully dented the reputation of the complaint in particular and his party," Kumar, who is the convenor of the legal cell of BJP Purvanchal Morcha in Delhi, said in his complaint.

The BJP leader told the court that he was pained to see the tweet which was posted by Kejriwal on September 30, 2018.

He further added that he wanted to file a complaint immediately but he thought that the "people have a better sense of judgment" and "no one will take the said tweet seriously".

But, he claimed, that the "tweet has caused embarrassment" to the complainant on several occasions as "some people in small social gatherings use to raise this issue and tease him".

Kumar further added that during the Hanuman Jayanti celebration in his society, one lady, when she came to know that he is a BJP leader, taunted on him citing Kejriwal's tweet.

The complaint said that there are a number of such incidents when the complainant was subjected to embarrassment due to utterly irresponsible and defamatory tweets, "which was published by Kejriwal while holding such high position in the system".

"The subject tweet has not only caused defamation to the complainant but to crores of members of BJP and accused cannot be permitted to let go for such an offense," the complainant said.

The complainant has requested the court to issue summons against Kejriwal under the charges dealing with defamation and promoting enmity between different groups of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and some provisions of the Information Technology Act.