The issue of “disputed status” of Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s new rented house in Civil Lines was taken to the Delhi High Court on Wednesday. The applications were moved for punishment for contempt, restraint on letting out the house and initiation of criminal proceedings in the case.
Petitioner Virender Jain, elder brother of Naren Jain, who had offered the former Delhi Chief Minister the house on rent, contended that the joint owners of the property had given an undertaking in the High Court for maintaining status quo until the suit for its partition was decided. The High Court had also passed an injunction order in 2011 directing the parties not to create any third party interest in the suit properties.
The family that owns the four-bedroom house spread over 800 square yards on Flag Staff Road in Civil Lines are children of Congress leader, the late Bhiku Ram Jain, who was an MP from the Chandni Chowk constituency in 1980-84.
Seventy-six-year-old Mr. Virender Jain, a businessman by profession, said the injunction orders were still in force and no one could deal with any of the suit properties until the claims of two step-sisters, whose legal heirs had intervened for their shares, were adjudicated by the High Court.
Mr. Jain pointed out that when the matter came to light, Mr. Naren started saying that Mr. Kejriwal was his “guest and not a tenant”. While affirming that Mr. Naren had committed contempt of Court by conveying a message that he was the sole owner of the property and could rent it out, Mr. Jain sought punishment for him. In another application moved through his counsel Girish Aggarwal, Mr. Jain sought ex parte orders for removal of Mr. Kejriwal, his family members, labourers, etc., from the house as well orders restraining the defendants from creating any third party rights or parting with possession of the property.
In his third application seeking initiation of criminal proceedings for false statements, Mr. Jain alleged that there was “collusion and connivance” between Mr. Naren and Mr. Kejriwal. “In case it is found that Mr. Kejriwal knew about correct facts, [an] appropriate action may kindly be ordered against him as well,” he said.
