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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday told a Delhi court that he had not received any money from anybody during his tenure as Delhi District Cricket Association president and charged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with deflecting attention from CBI probe "against a particular person" working with him.
Jaitley alleged that Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders -- Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai -- had falsely stated that as the then DDCA president, he had siphoned off the money and was the beneficiary.
The finance minister, who appeared amid tight security before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal to record his statement supporting the criminal defamation complaint filed by him against Kejriwal and others, said they had given false and defamatory statements against him and his family members.
He said that Kejriwal's statement that he had received money when the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium was constructed during his tenure as the DDCA Chief, was false, as the Board of Directors had constituted a committee to supervise the work and he was not a member of this supervisory committee.
Besides Jaitley, the court also recorded the statement of senior journalist Rajat Sharma, who appeared as a complainant witness in the case.
During recording of his statement which lasted for about 70 minutes, Jaitley referred to Twitter and Facebook posts of the six persons and said their statements had damaged his reputation even after he had filed the defamation complaint.
He alleged that these AAP leaders had made false and defamatory statements against him and his family members which lowered his dignity in the eyes of the public at large.
"Their acts attracted adverse public comments and made my reputation discriminatory in the public at large," Jaitley said, as the recording of his statement concluded on Tuesday.
Jaitley said statements have been made to deflect attention from CBI investigation "against a particular person" working with the Delhi chief minister.
The finance minister arrived in the court premises at 1:56 pm and entered the court room at 2pm amidst tight security. No media person was allowed inside the court room during the proceedings.
The court has now posted the matter for February 3 to record statements of other complainant witnesses in the case.
Jaitley had on December 21 filed the criminal defamation case against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders for allegedly defaming him and sought their prosecution for offences that entail a punishment of up to two years in jail.
The complaint has been filed for alleged offences under sections 499 (defamation), 500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 502 (sale of printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter), 34 (common intention) and 35 (when such an act is criminal by reason of its being done with a criminal knowledge or intention) of the IPC.
In his complaint, Jaitley had said the chief minister 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 had raided the office of a Delhi government officer looking for Jaitley's "tax scam files" and that there was corruption worth several hundred crores during Jaitley's tenure and he had shielded DDCA for over 15 years.
Jaitley had said such statements have been made orally and through Twitter handle of the AAP leaders which have been carried by electronic and print media from December 15 to December 20.