Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday told the Delhi High Court he has been cross-examined “eight times” by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s counsel who have not asked any question on the alleged defamatory remarks, for which he had filed a libel suit against the AAP leaders.
Instead of asking questions relating to the allegations, Mr. Kejriwal’s counsel were going “all around the world”, he said.
Matter listed for Nov 30
“There were two defamatory imputations made and eight hearings have already been done and not a single question has been asked on that and you are going all around the world. This is when the question of relevancy comes,” Mr. Jaitley told Delhi High Court’s Joint Registrar Rakesh Pandit.
He said this at the end of the over one-and-a half hour long hearing in the ₹10 crore civil defamation suit filed by the BJP leader against Mr. Kejriwal and five AAP leaders.
Senior counsel Anoop George Chaudhari and advocate Anupam Srivastav, appearing for Mr. Kejriwal, said they would take some more time to cross-examine the Finance Minister.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on November 30.
Accusations over DDCA
Mr. Jaitley, 64, was present in the court for the eighth round of cross-examination in the defamation suit filed by him against Mr. Kejriwal and AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai, for accusing him of financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which he was the president from 1999 to 2013. The allegations were denied by the Union Minister.
Mr. Jaitley testified that several cricketing clubs were affiliated to the sports committee of DDCA, including the Syndicate Bank.
He claimed the bank had voluntarily handed over the club to one of its employees and made it a private club and a few years later, the bank changed its decision and wanted the club back, which was eventually done.
“The DDCA office bearers committed no wrong. It was the bank which changed its decision. This is apparent from the documents on record. Notwithstanding this reality, Kirti Azad made a motivated complaint against the DDCA office bearers. It is therefore, that I call it motivated,” Mr. Jaitley testified.
