Deeply hurt by defamatory allegations of Kejriwal, BJP leader tells Delhi court

Team Udayavani, Jun 27, 2019, 10:05 AM IST

New Delhi: BJP leader Vijender Gupta on Wednesday told a Delhi court that he was deeply hurt by the defamatory and false allegations of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and and his deputy Manish Sisodia who accused Gupta of conspiring to kill the AAP chief.

Gupta, who was recording his statement to support his defamation complaint against Kejriwal and Sisodia, told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal that the false allegations were made to impact the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab which were held in the last phase.

“I was deeply hurt by the defamatory and false statements of both the accused persons. They made these false statements to impact the last phase of Lok Sabha elections in Punjab in their favour,” Gupta said in his statement.

The court has concluded the recording of Gupta’s statement and the witnesses’ statements will be recorded on Thursday. In the complaint, Gupta, who is the Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, has sought Rs 1 crore as compensation from Kejriwal and Sisodia, besides litigation costs.

He claimed the two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders have not expressed any remorse or apologised for his “reputation being harmed”. Gupta alleged the statements of the accused were made with “ulterior motives” to degrade his reputation, malign his image and gain some cheap political mileage.

Gupta said the allegation that he was attempting to murder Kejriwal was malicious, deliberate and defamatory. “These allegations are not only awful and disquieting, but distressing and defaming. The complainant can’t even think of hurting someone knowingly and voluntarily much less planning to assassinate/kill/murder Kejriwal,” he said.

A legal notice was also sent to the two AAP leaders wherein they were called upon to immediately withdraw their tweets and apologise within a day’s time, the complaint said. During the Lok Sabha polls, the Delhi chief minister had said in an interview to a Punjabi channel that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted to get him killed by his own personal security officer (PSO) in the manner in which Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

Countering the charge Gupta had wrote on Twitter, “Before the slapgate on May 4, @ArvindKejriwal asked the liaison officer to lift the security cover around his vehicle. The chief minister’s instruction is registered in the roznamcha (police diary). The AAP could not receive electoral gain out of it because I exposed this, so out of frustration Kejriwal is saying that his PSO reports to the BJP.”

Sisodia shot back and accused Gupta of being a part of the conspiracy to kill Arvind Kejriwal. “The BJP is conspiring to get the CM killed. This tweet by @Gupta_vijender has proved that the BJP is getting the daily security plan of the CM and it is hatching a conspiracy to kill the CM on this basis. Vijender Gupta is also a part of this conspiracy,” he had said quoting Gupta’s tweet.