Court to consider AAP plea over sting Jan 25

A Delhi court Wednesday posted for Jan 25 the defamation case filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) against a news portal and a private TV channel, alleging that they conducted a fake sting operation to harm the party's reputation.

According to the AAP petition, the sting operation CD was released to the media by Anuranjan Jha, CEO of Media Sarkar, and run by India News editor-in-chief Deepak Chaurasia and CEO Vinod Sharma on the news channel.

Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain said Wednesday he would read the plea thoroughly before proceeding. He listed the matter for Jan 25 for considering the defamation complaint.

However, AAP counsel V.K. Ohri requested the judge for an early hearing in the case, saying the complaint was urgent in nature.

He said a doctored CD was shown to defame the party's image in the eyes of voters and it has caused damage to the party.

The counsel told the court the party was contesting the Delhi election Dec 4 and the media portal circulated the CD containing defamatory allegations against the party and its candidates.

He also alleged that the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party do not want the AAP to gain momentum before the elections.

"Fix the matter for consideration on pre-summoning evidence for Jan 25, 2014," the court said after hearing the brief submissions.

The defamation case was filed by AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta.

"Act of the accused is clearly malafide and calculated to defame the complainant in the eyes of voters of Delhi where assembly election is going to take place Dec 4," the petition said.

Chaurasia has said the AAP was targeting him.

"It (the footage) was run by other channels also. Why does the AAP not file cases against them?" Chaurasia told IANS.