A Delhi court on Monday took cognisance of two criminal defamation cases filed by Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain — one against suspended AAP MLA and former Minister Kapil Mishra and the other against BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa — and asked him to lead pre-summoning evidence.
The Minister has filed the two cases alleging that Mr. Mishra and Mr. Sirsa had defamed him by levelling corruption charges against him before the media.
Case listed for July 14
Metropolitan Magistrate Shefali Barnala Tandon listed the case against Mr. Mishra on July 14 and the one against Mr. Sirsa on June 3 for recording of pre-summoning evidence of Mr. Jain.
In his complaint against Mr. Mishra, Mr. Jain alleged he (Mr. Mishra) on May 7 made a statement before the media that he had paid a bribe ₹2 crore to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Counsel for the Minister alleged that Mr. Mishra also used his official Twitter handle to defame Mr. Jain, and instead of approaching a probe agency, he levelled the charges before the media to defame the Health Minister.
As regards Mr. Sirsa, Mr. Jain said in his complaint that the MLA on May 9 made a libellous statement by levelling corruption charges against him.
His allegations were based on hearsay without any proof. Mr. Sirsa said that the Minister was indulging in circulating huge amounts of illegitimate money within the AAP, Mr. Jain alleged.
