Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was acquitted by a Delhi court on Monday in a criminal defamation case filed by a former aide of Congress leader and former CM of Delhi Sheila Dikshit. The court observed that the complainant cannot be said to be an “aggrieved person”.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted relief to Kejiriwal in the case lodged by Pawan Khera, the political secretary of Dikshit when she was the Chief Minister, for remarks allegedly made against her by the AAP leader in a television show during power tariff hike protests in October 2012. Delhi chief minister was granted relief citing lack of evidence against him.
Khera had alleged that Kejriwal used “false and defamatory” accusations against Dikshit, which also harmed his reputation since he was associated with her. The court said Khera was not named by Kejriwal and there was no specific legal injury to his reputation.
“The complainant is not a person aggrieved in this case, the words prima facie not defamatory of the complainant and the alleged interview has not been proved as per law. Therefore, this complaint of defamation filed by him is not maintainable,” it said.
The court had framed charges against Kejriwal under Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code in October 2018.
If convicted, the politician could have been sent to a maximum two year jail term.In his complaint, Khera had alleged that Kejriwal had defamed him and he spoke the defamatory word with an intention to harm his reputation.
Advocate Mohd Irshad, appearing for Kejriwal, had told the court that Khera was not a member of the Congress nor he has disclosed in clear terms his relationship with Dikshit. He had submitted that Kejriwal had not said anything against the political secretary.
Kejriwal had opposed the complaint on the grounds that it has been filed by Khera and not by Dikshit herself.
According to the complaint, in October 2012, Kejriwal had organised several protests against “power tariff hike in the national Capital and had accused the then Delhi Government of stalling Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission’s move to cut power tariff by 23 per cent in 2010”.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has welcomed the acquittal of its chief Arvind Kejriwal and said that political battles should not be fought in courts.
The AAP believes that political battles should be fought on political platforms only and not in courts, said senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey.
“In principle, we have been against criminal defamation cases. In a healthy political set up, parties should be welcomed for doing politics over facts and evidence and should not be slapped with defamation cases,” he said.
As far as Dikshit’s defamation is concerned, people have already given their verdict against her and the Congress, Pandey said.