Jaitley slaps second defamation suit against Kejriwal

Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday filed a second defamation case of Rs 10 crore against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. 

Jaitley’s counsel, Manik Dogra, said that they had filed a fresh civil defamation suit against Kejriwal as he, through his counsel Ram Jethmalani, had used abusive language in the open court.

“This was also recorded in the order sheet and warrants filing of a separate defamation suit,” Dogra said.

Jethmalani had referred to Jaitley as a “crook” during the cross-examination in the Delhi High Court last week. 

On May 17, Jaitley had appeared before Joint Registrar Deepali Sharma to record his statement in the first civil defamation suit of Rs 10 crore against Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) functionaries.

The AAP leaders had accused Jaitley of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association of which he was president from 2000 to 2013. 

‘Crossing the limit’

As Jethmalani continued his attack, the joint registrar objected and said he and other advocates were crossing the limit.

Jaitley then asked Jethmalani if the objectionable word “crook” was used against him as per instructions from Kejriwal. Jethmalani replied in  the affirmative.

“If this is so, I would aggravate the charges against the defendant (Kejriwal),” Jaitley said, adding that there was a limit to personal malice.

Representing Jaitley, senior advocates Rajiv Nayar and Sandeep Sethi said Jethmalani was putting scandalous questions, and should restrain himself from asking irrelevant ones as this matter is between Jaitley and Kejriwal and not Jethmalani versus Jaitley.

The Delhi High Court has listed the matter for further cross-examination on July 28 and July 31 after Kejriwal’s counsel asked the court to defer it.