Court summons CM Arvind Kejriwal in defamation case

A Delhi court Wednesday summoned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a criminal complaint of the founder of social media page, 'I Support Narendra Modi', who alleged that the AAP leader re-tweeted a defamatory video by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee in May 2018.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal directed Kejriwal to appear before the court on August 7.

The court was hearing a complaint by Vikas Sankrityayan, who claimed that the YouTube video with the title 'BJP IT Cell Part II' was circulated by Rathee, who lives in Germany, "wherein number of false and defamatory allegations were made".

Regarding Kejriwal, Sankrityayan said that he re-tweeted the video from his twitter account without checking the authenticity of the video.

"The complainant alleges that the allegations made against him in this video are false, malicious and defamatory and it has lowered the reputation of the complainant in the eyes of right thinking members of the society. So far no proof has been tendered on the allegations," the complaint said.

He said Kejriwal is followed by crores of people "due to which the video has reached to a large number of people not only in India but also internationally".

The court said that "allegations in the video are prima facie defamatory and refers to complainant Vikas Sankrityayan making him an aggrieved person".

"Therefore, in view of the discussion there exists sufficient grounds to proceed against the respondent Arvind Kejriwal under section 500 (defamation) IPC.

"Accordingly, Kejriwal is summoned for commission of offence of defamation...," the court said.