Court dismisses Kejriwal plea in defamation case over electoral rolls

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday dismissed a plea filed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders challenging the summons issued them in a defamation case for their remarks over alleged deletion of voters’ names from electoral rolls in the city.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar rejected the plea to set aside the summon order passed in March last year against Kejriwal, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, MLA Manoj Kumar and party leader Atishi Marlena.

The court’s order comes on a defamation complaint filed by BJP leader Rajiv Babbar seeking proceedings against them for “harming” the reputation of BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of voters from electoral rolls.

In his plea, he had contended that leaders, during a press conference held in December 2018, alleged that on the directions of the BJP, the names of 30 lakh voters from Bania, Purvanchali and the Muslim community had been deleted by the Election Commission.

The court, while dismissing the plea, said, “….there is no infirmity in the impugned order. Accordingly, criminal revision petition challenging the said order is hereby dismissed”.

On March 15, 2019, the court had summoned Kejriwal and the others leaders in the defamation plea. The leaders had challenged this order.