A city court on Tuesday summoned senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Atishi to appear in the court in relation to a defamation suit filed by BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor. Atishi has been asked to appear before the Rouse Avenue Court on June 29 in relation to a claim she made about BJP trying to poach AAP MLAs.
Reacting to the summon, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to X (formerly Twitter) and posted, “I had said earlier that they will arrest Atishi next. They are planning to do so now. Complete dictatorship. In completely flimsy, frivolous and false cases, they are arresting all leaders of AAP one by one. Every single opposition leader will be arrested if Modi comes back to power. AAP is not important. Saving our dear country from dictatorship is important.”
In a press conference on April 2, Atishi alleged, “I have been approached by my close people to join BJP. I was told either I join BJP and save my career or the ED will arrest me in one month. A very close person to me told me that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have made up their minds to destroy AAP and its leaders.”
The BJP filed a defamation suit in this regard and stated, “Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Rouse Avenue Tanya Bamniyal on Tuesday accepted the Defamation Suit filed by Delhi BJP’s Media Head Praveen Shankar Kapoor against Delhi Minister Atishi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Summons have been issued to Atishi to appear in court on June 29.”
They further claimed that Atishi and Arvind Kejriwal had accused BJP of breaking the Aam Aadmi Party MLAs by paying them, against which Praveen Shankar Kapoor had filed a Defamation Suit. “Taking cognizance of this, the Court has summoned Minister Atishi on June 29 considering her as an accused,” it further stated.The court in its order stated, “Having considered the facts and circumstances, the testimonies of the complainant’s witnesses, the evidence placed on record, it prima facie appears that the alleged accused no. 1 has made specific defamatory statements as aforementioned against the complainant. Further, it prima facie appears that the aforesaid defamatory statements made by the alleged accused no. 1 has been sufficiently published in the electronic media/social media which may make the right thinking members of the society against the complainant.”
It further stated that there exist sufficient grounds to summon accused Atishi Marlena under section 500 (Punishment for defamation) of IPC. In a press conference held by the party, BJP candidate Bansuri Swaraj for New Delhi seat hit out at the AAP for making it a habit to shoot and scoot.
“They have become habitual offenders. We used to let go of it at the start thinking that it is a political move but every time their leaders face some charges or there is an issue, they resort to making such claims of lotus operation. We have decided to put an end to it and will make them realise that there are consequences to saying lies.”