Arvind Kejriwal exempted from personal appearance in defamation case

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted exemption from personal appearance to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others for the day during hearing of a defamation case filed by the BJP over their comments on deletion of voters' names from the rolls in the national capital.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted the relief to Mr Kejriwal, Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta and Aam Aadmi Party's Lok Sabha candidate for East Delhi Atishi, after their counsel submitted that the accused were busy in election campaign.

The court directed them to appear on June 7, the next date of hearing.

While Mr Kejriwal was busy in election campaign in Haryana, Ms Atishi was holding a rally in Delhi, their advocate Mohd Irshad said, while moving the application on their behalf seeking exemption.

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Mr Gupta was also busy in election campaign, Mr Irshad added.

The court was hearing the complaint filed by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar, on behalf of the party's Delhi unit, seeking proceedings against the AAP leaders for allegedly harming the reputation of BJP by blaming it for the deletion of the names of "voters" from the electoral rolls.

The complaint alleged that the accused had made certain "deliberate and malafide" defamatory statements against the BJP.

Mr Babbar claimed the AAP leaders had, during a press conference held in December last year, alleged that on the directions of BJP, names of 30 lakh voters from Bania, Poorvanchali and Muslim community had been deleted by the Election Commission of India.

The allegation was also tweeted by Mr Kejriwal.

"It is stated that adding or deleting the names of voters is the role and responsibility of Election Commission, which is a constitutional body. The Election Commission doesn't add or delete the names of voters on the direction of a political party," the complaint said.