Arun Jaitley Sues Arvind Kejriwal For Defamation, Seeks Rs. 10 Cr in Damages
NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has filed a defamation suit against Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders for accusing him of corruption in Delhi’s cricket body, which he headed for 13 years till 2013. Mr Jaitley has also sought Rs. 10 crore in damages, the Press Trust of India reported.
AAP will also file a First Information Report or police complaint against Mr Jaitley alleging forgery, corruption and loot of public money in the DDCA or Delhi and District Cricket Association.
The row involves alleged financial irregularities in DDCA and it surfaced after a CBI raid on Mr Kejriwal’s top officer last week. AAP alleges that the CBI officers carried out the raid to search for DDCA files to help the finance minister.
At a press conference yesterday, BJP lawmaker and former cricketer Kirti Azad said that contracts were given to fake companies, crores were paid to them in cash and accounts were fudged.
The lawmaker, who went public with the allegations despite his party chief Amit Shah asking him not to, said he was a “fan” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign against corruption and was out to counter corruption.
The DDCA has admitted that there were irregularities, but has absolved Mr Jaitley of any involvement.
“After Arun Jaitley left, the president of DDCA sent Rs. 155 crore without any authorisation… We suspended him, he got an interlocutory order from the court, we had an inquiry also and we took away all his powers,” said DDCA treasurer Ravindra Manchanda
The Delhi government has also ordered an inquiry headed by former Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramaniam.
AAP has insisted that Mr Jaitley must resign or be removed for a fair investigation.
Mr Jaitley said in a Facebook post last week that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, under the UPA regime, had “investigated and could not find a shred of evidence” against him. “No personal allegation was ever made against me nor did I ever feel the need of contradicting it,” he said.
The minister’s party is solidly backing him and has dismissed Mr Kejriwal’s claims as “malicious”.
