Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has filed an additional Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The suit was filed by Jaitley after Kejriwal's lawyer Ram Jethmalani called the finance minister a 'crook' in court.
The Delhi High Court last week had said that the remarks made by Jethmalani against Jaitley were "scandalous." Kejriwal is already fighting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in an existing defamation case that was filed for Rs 10 crore.
After Jethmalani's remarks, Jaitley had asked if the slur used against him had been "authorised" for use by the chief minister. When Jethmalani said that it had, the finance minister said he could seek "aggravated damages."
Jethmalani reportedly had also said that Jaitley was 'guilty of crimes and crookery'. The case is likely to be heard in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday.
Delhi HC's Justice Manmohan had last week stated that if such remarks were made on Kejriwal's instructions, then he should "first step into the box and make good his allegations" before continuing with Jaitley's cross examination.
"If such allegations have been made on instructions of Defendant 1 (Arvind Kejriwal), then no point in continuing with cross examination of plaintiff (Arun Jaitley) any more. Let Defendant 1 make good his allegations. Let him step into the box," the judge had said.
Jaitley's senior advocates, Rajiv Nayar and Sandeep Sethi, had raised the issue in the top court, seeking a clarification from Kejriwal whether the remarks made against Jaitley were made on his instructions or Jethmalani used the words on his own.
Jethmalani had called Jaitley a crook before Joint Registrar Deepali Sharma last Wednesday when Jaitley was being cross-examined in the Rs. 10 crore civil defamation case filed by him against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders for accusing him of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which he was the president from 2000 to 2013.
The five AAP leaders in the defamation case are Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai.
