Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday filed a joint application in Delhi’s Patiala House Court seeking to withdraw a defamation case, ANI reported. They decided to withdraw the case after Kejriwal wrote to the transport minister expressing his regret for making “unverified allegations” against him.
The Delhi chief minister also apologised to Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday, according to ANI.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the party will apologise to all the people they have hurt. “We are here to serve the people, we do not have the time to go to courts for such issues,” Sisodia told ANI. “We are here to build schools and hospitals for the welfare of people.”
Nitin Gadkari
In 2013, Gadkari had filed a criminal defamation case against Kejriwal for alleging that he had been involved in corruption. Kejriwal had included Gadkari’s name in a list called “India’s most corrupt” politicians ahead of the 2014 general election.
“I have nothing personal against you,” Kejriwal wrote in the letter to Gadkari. “I regret the same. Let us put the incident behind us and bring the court proceedings to a closure.”
Kapil Sibal
Kapil Sibal’s son Amit Sibal had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and some other AAP leaders in 2013 for alleging that Sibal had a conflict of interest in seeking to revise a tax demand on Vodafone.
“Kejriwal and [Manish] Sisodia have accepted that the allegations they had put on me and my son in a press conference a few [years] ago were baseless,” Sibal told ANI. “He has apologised for what he did, everything is forgotten now, we will move ahead.”
The apologies came days after Kejriwal apologised to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia for alleging that he was involved in the drug trade in Punjab. Soon after the apology to Majithia was issued, the Aam Aadmi Party’s alliance partner in Punjab, the Lok Insaf Party, withdrew its support saying Kejriwal was a “traitor” and “fraudster” who had “betrayed” Punjabis by issuing the apology.
Aman Arora, AAP legislator from Suna, had told PTI that Kejriwal issued the apology as he has many defamation cases against him across the country and the legal battles were draining him and the party of resources.
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