HC dismisses Kejriwal’s plea to summon DDCA records in defamation case

New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking direction to summon records and minutes of meetings of the DDCA conducted between 1999 and 2014.

Joint Registrar Pankaj Gupta denied the plea of Kejriwal, who had filed it in connection with Rs 10 crore defamation suits filed against him and five other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)Aleaders by Union Minister Arun jaitley.

Kejriwal had sought minutes of the meetings held by the general body and the executive committee or board of directors of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) between 1999 and 2014, saying he wished to confront Jaitley with these documents during recording of evidence in the defamation case.

Jaitley, on the other hand, had objected to the plea, saying Kejriwal has been trying to delay the proceedings by filing frivolous pleas, including the current one.

Besides Kejriwal, the five others AAP leaders facing defamation suit are Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.

The AAP leaders had accused the BJP leader of corruption while he was the President of the DDCA from 2000 to 2013.

Jaitley had filed the defamation suit against the AAP leaders for allegedly levelling "defamatory" charges against him in connection with alleged irregularities in DDCA while he was its President.

Later, the BJP leader filed another Rs 10 crore defamation case against Kejriwal after senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, then representing Kejriwal, had used "objectionable words" against Jaitley during cross-examination and said that Delhi CM had instructed him to use the words against the minister.