Jaitley, Kejriwal move Delhi court for settling criminal defamation case

A joint plea by Union Minister Arun Jaitley and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was moved before a Delhi court today seeking to settle the criminal defamation case filed by the former against the AAP convenor in the DDCA row.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishalvsaid said the court will take up the application, filed by Jaitley and Kejriwal through their respective counsels, tomorrow.

The move by Kejriwal comes as no surprise as he has already apologised to several others who had filed defamation suits and complaints against him.

Earlier in the day, the two leaders had moved the high court jointly to "settle" their over two year old litigation regarding alleged defamatory statements made against the BJP leader after the AAP supremo apologised for his remarks.

Jaitley had on August 5 last year accused Kejriwal and other AAP leaders -- Kumar Viswas, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai -- of making a series of "false, scandalous and defamatory" allegations against him, claiming it adversely affected his reputation.

According to the joint application, apart from Kejriwal, other AAP leaders -- Chadha, Singh, Ashutosh and Bajpai -- have apologised for their statements against Jaitley in connection with irregularities in DDCA.

Vishwas has not yet tendered an apology and hence the proceedings shall continue against him.

The AAP leaders had alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when Jaitley was its president from 2000 to 2013, prompting the minister to lodge defamation cases against them while denying all the allegations.