Court reserves order on Kejriwal's plea in DDCA's defamation complaint

A Delhi court will pronounce on April 19 its order on an application of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking discharge in a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and its then Vice President Chetan Chauhan for allegedly defaming the cricketing body.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal heard the arguments from the complainants and the accused persons, including suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad, and reserved the order.

In his application, the AAP leader's advocate Rishi Kumar claimed there was not an iota of evidence that Chauhan and any other DDCA official were "personally" defamed.

"There is no aggrieved person in the complainants and the complaint needs to be be dismissed," the advocate for Kejriwal said.

Advocate Sangram Patnaik, appearing for Chauhan, opposed the application saying his client was associated with the DDCA during the period the adverse remarks were allegedly made and it had damaged his reputation.

The DDCA and Chauhan had filed the complaint alleging that the defamatory statements were made by Kejriwal and Azad, who was himself then a DDCA member, "perhaps to remain in the public eye and to gain political mileage".

It had alleged that the actions of Kejriwal and Azad "severely damaged" the credibility and reputation of the DDCA in the eyes of thousands of cricket lovers, citizens of India as well as internationally. It claimed Kejriwal's "false" statements were immediately endorsed and repeated by Azad.

The plea, while denying all the allegations levelled by Kejriwal and Azad, said they have purportedly given "wholly incorrect and false, baseless and grossly defamatory" statements against the cricketing body.