DDCA case: Court dismisses AAP leaders' plea for documents

A Delhi court today dismissed the applications moved by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leader Raghav Chadha seeking various documents in a criminal defamation complaint filed against them by Union minister Arun Jaitley in the DDCA row.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat rejected the pleas of Kejriwal and Chadha seeking the documents on the ground that the copies they received earlier were not clear.
The two leaders, accused in the defamation case along with three other AAP members, had also sought various documents from Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and certain letters reportedly written by former cricketers to Jaitley highlighting corruption in the cricket association.

The matter has now been fixed for evidence on February 8, Jaitley's counsel Manoj Taneja said.
Jaitley had on December 15, 2017 opposed the applications alleging that Kejriwal and Chadha were seeking a "roving and fishing enquiry" in the case and that the accused wanted to delay the trial.
Jaitley had on August 5 last year charged Kejriwal, Chadha and the other AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai with making a series of false, scandalous and defamatory allegations, with regard to the alleged controversy, claiming that it had adversely affected his reputation.

The AAP leaders had accused Jaitley of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which he was the president from 2000 to 2013, leading the minister to lodge defamation cases against them.

All the six accused were on March 25, 2017 put on trial in the case. The notice was framed against the accused under section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC to which they had pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
Jaitley had filed the complaint alleging that the accused had defamed him.
A civil defamation suit was also filed by Jaitley before the Delhi High Court in the matter seeking Rs 10 crore as damages.