Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday told a Delhi court that he had not received any money from anybody during his tenure as DDCA president and accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of deflecting attention from the CBI probe “against a particular person” working with him.
During the recording of his statement, Jaitley told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal that Kejriwal and five people had given “false” and “defamatory” statements against him and his family members.
Jaitley, who appeared before the court amidst tight security, also said statements have been made to deflect attention from the CBI probe “against a particular person” who is working with Kejriwal, court sources said
The security personnel did not allow any mediaperson to enter the court room and only the advocates have been allowed to attend the closed-door proceedings.
Jaitley had on December 21 filed criminal defamation case against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders — Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai — for allegedly defaming him and sought their prosecution for offences that entail a punishment of upto two years in jail.
The complaint was filed under various sections of the IPC including 499 (defamation), 500 (punishment), 501 and 502 (printing and sale of defamatory matter).
In his complaint, Jaitley had said the CM and other AAP leaders, with common intention, have from December 15 undertaken “a false, malicious and defamatory campaign against him and his family members for political mileage causing irreversible damage to him.”
The complaint referred to some of the allegations made by AAP leaders in Press conferences, including one that claimed that the CBI raided the office of the Delhi Government official looking for Jaitley’s “tax scam files” and that there was corruption worth several hundred crores under Jaitley’s tenure and that he had shielded DDCA for over 15 years.
Jaitley had said such statements have been made orally and through Twitter handle of AAP leaders which have been carried by electronic and print media from December 15 to December 20.
Jaitley, who was accompanied by Arti Mehra, Nalin Kohli, and Vijendra Gupta, further added, “The statements made by the accused with a malicious intention in order to lower my reputation amongst my friends, supporters.”
In submission over the DDCA controversy in which Kejriwal had alleged Jaitley’s involvement, the Finance Minster stated, “Between December 1999 and December 2013, I was the president of DDCA. I discharged my functions lawfully and with utmost integrity. During my entire tenure, I have not received directly or indirectly a single rupee from the association on any account whatsoever. I have not even charged any amount towards expenditure.”
lambasting Kejriwal for accusing him of corruption charges, he said he left the presidentship of DDCA in December 2013 after which he became the patron of the DDCA which is a non-functional post from which he resigned soon. Rajat Sharma, journalist and close friend of Jaitley also deposed his statement and said he has known Jaitley for the last 42 years and these allegations against him are false.
The court after hearing the statements of the two fixed the date on February 3 for recording the statements of Ved Prakash Sharma, another complainant witness.