The Delhi Court on Thursday granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders in a criminal defamation case filed against them by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in regard to the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass granted relief to Kejriwal and AAP leaders Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai, after they appeared before the court in pursuance to summons issued on March 9 and moved bail pleas before the court.
Meanwhile, Jaitley also arrived with various BJP leaders, including Satish Upadhyay and Vijendra Gupta. Before commencement of the hearing, the BJP and AAP workers raised slogans against each other. A minor scuffle broke out between them outside the Court complex. However police controlled the situation.
In a two minute courtroom proceeding, Sumit Dass ordered for bail and also asked them to furnish personal bail bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety of like amount.
Offence being bailable, all accused persons are admitted to bail on their furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs 25,000 each with one surety in the like amount.
“Counsel for accused persons submits that the bail bonds furnished by them has been filed up for an amount of Rs 20,000 and prays for accepting the same. Heard. Considered. In the larger interest of justice, the bail bonds furnished by all accused persons are accepted,” the court said. The court has now fixed the case on May 19 for further arguments.
Kejriwal’s counsel RK Wadhva stated that he hasn’t received all the documents in the case, to which Jaitley’s counsel Siddharth luthra replied that they will furnish all the documents.
Gopal Mohan stood surety for Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s Food and Supplies Minister Imran Hussain stood surety for Ashutosh, Uttam Nagar legislator Naresh Balyan for Sanjay Singh, laxmi Nagar’s member of legislative assembly (MlA) Nitin Tyagi for Vishwas, Burari’s MlA Sanjeev Jha for Chadha and Mehrauli’s MlA Naresh Yadav stood surety for Bajpayee.
The court had on March 9 ordered Kejriwal and the five other AAP leaders to appear before it on April 7 while observing that allegations made were “derogatory” and amounted to “slander and libel.” In January, Jaitley had filed a criminal defamation complaint alleging that Kejriwal and these five AAP leaders had allegedly defamed him in the DDCA controversy.