Court grants Kejriwal exemption from personal appearance

New Delhi, Sept 17 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal was today granted exemption from personal appearancefor the day by a court here in a criminal defamation complaintfiled by Union minister Arun Jaitley against him and others. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass fixed the matterfor October 24 after counsel for Kejriwal and five other AAPleaders, who are also accused in the case, submitted that itsearlier order refusing to stay proceedings in the case, hasbeen challenged in the Delhi High Court. The court, which was told that Kejriwal could not appeartoday as he has undergone throat surgery in Bengaluru,directed that the matter be put up on the next date afterJaitley’s counsel said he has no objection if the matter washeard after the high court’s decision. The court also allowed the exemption pleas moved bycomplainant Jaitley and another accused Sanjay Singh whoclaimed official work as the reason for their non-appearance. The court had on May 19 dismissed the accused’ pleaseeking stay of the proceedings in the current criminaldefamation case, after which they approached the high court. Jaitley had filed the criminal defamation complaintalleging that Kejriwal and the five AAP leaders — Ashutosh,Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai– had allegedly defamed him in Delhi District CricketAssociation (DDCA) controversy. A civil defamation suit has also been filed by Jaitleybefore the Delhi High Court in relation to the matter seekingRs 10 crore in damages. PTI UK SKVSC