Court issues summons against Kejriwal in defamation case

A Delhi court on Thursday issued summons against activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal on a criminal defamation case filed against him by the political secretary of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for allegedly making baseless allegations against her.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Shailender Malik summoned Kejriwal as an accused, based on the complaint which said Kejriwal had used "false and filthy" language against the chief minister in a television show.

"Due to politically motivated and malafide reasons, mischievous and absolutely false and baseless allegations have been intentionally made in a filthy and foul language through convoluted information to gain scandalising impact, at a platform where the same could not be rebutted, as Sheila Dikshit or the office of the chief minister of Delhi was not represented. This shows that the intention was to paint a patently incorrect picture in the eyes of the viewers and general public, thereby causing irreparable harm to the reputation and standing of all including complainant," said the complaint by Pawan Khera, the chief minister's political secretary.

Appearing for Khera, advocate Mehmood Pracha said that in October 2012, Kejriwal had organised several protests against the "power tariff hike in the capital and had accused the government of stalling the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission's move to cut power tariff by 23 per cent in 2010".

The complainant also said that as he was a part of the Chief Minister's Office, he too was defamed by Kejriwal.