Delhi court dismisses Kejriwal's plea against summons in defamation case

A sessions court Tuesday dismissed a plea by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders against an order summoning them in a defamation case for their remarks over alleged deletion of voters' names from electoral rolls in the city.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar denied the plea to set aside an order by a magisterial court which had in March last year summoned Kejriwal, besides AAP's Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, MLA Manoj Kumar and party leader Atishi Marlena.

The judge said there was "no infirmity in the impugned order".

"Accordingly, criminal revision petition challenging the said order is hereby dismissed," the court said.

The case was filed by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, who moved the petition on behalf of the party's Delhi unit, seeking proceedings against them for "harming" the reputation of BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of voters from electoral rolls here.

He had claimed the AAP leaders, during a press conference held in December 2018, alleged that on the directions of the BJP names of 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali and the Muslim community had been deleted by the Election Commission.