Court to hear criminal defamation plea against Kejriwal in Sep

A Delhi court today said it would hear in September a criminal defamation plea filed against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by a BJP youth-wing leader for allegedly defaming him by projecting him as the person who reportedly assaulted former minister Kapil Mishra.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gajender Singh Nagar, who had earlier partly heard the arguments, fixed September 1 for further hearing on consideration of the complaint which was also filed against AAP spokesperson Sanjay Singh.
The plea filed by Ankit Bhardwaj, a state executive member of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM), has sought prosecution of the two AAP leaders for the offence of criminal defamation claiming that it was his namesake who had allegedly assaulted Mishra.

Advocate Yogesh Swaroop, appearing for Bhardwaj, said his name was "wrongly taken" by the AAP leaders in the media by describing him as a BJYM officer bearer who had assaulted Mishra on May 10.
He had also said the person apprehended at the spot for the alleged offence, purportedly belonged to their own party.
The counsel had claimed that on the official Twitter account and facebook page of the Aam Aadmi Party, it was mentioned that the person who attacked Mishra was Ankit Bhardwaj who belonged to BJP and was showing his identity as an assailant by putting screenshots of his Facebook profile.

"They (BJP supporters, his friends and relatives) had seen Sanjay Singh declaring the complainant as the assailant by showing the complainant's Facebook profile and his work in the BJYM and questioning BJP regarding that incident in the interview of Singh on different news channels," the plea said.
The complainant has said that the criminal defamation complaint was being filed as both Kejriwal and Singh did not reply to his legal notice in the matter.
"The reputation of the complainant has been tarnished in the mind of party leaders, relatives, friends and public at large whoever saw the news," the complaint claimed.