A Delhi court on Wednesday stayed the non-bailable warrants issued against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and Swaraj India President Yogendra Yadav in a criminal defamation case, PTI reported. The court had issued the warrants on Tuesday as they had failed to appear for the hearing of a defamation plea filed by advocate Surendra Kumar Sharma.
The court said it will take up the matter again on April 29.
In his complaint, Sharma alleged that volunteers from Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party in 2013 had promised him a party ticket for the Delhi Assembly elections. Sharma claimed that he submitted his application form after Sisodia and Yadav told him that the party had agreed to grant him the ticket. The party, however, withdrew its ticket allotment to him.
Sharma alleged that articles in several newspapers quoted the accused as saying “defamatory, unlawful and derogatory words” against him in October 2013. The newspaper reports lowered his reputation in the bar and in society, Sharma claimed.
The accused had claimed that withdrawal of an election ticket was the party’s prerogative and that Sharma had not informed AAP about the cases against him.
A trial court had granted bail to all the three accused in the matter earlier.
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