A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a defamation case filed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajeev Babbar, the Hindustan Times reported. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal granted Kejriwal bail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000 after he appeared in court.
The court also granted bail to Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta and MLA Manoj Kumar. AAP leader Atishi, another accused in the case, had sought exemption from appearance in court. The court will hear the matter next on July 25.
Babbar, in his complaint, had accused the four leaders of harming the BJP’s reputation by claiming that the party was responsible for the deletion of voters’ names from the electoral rolls in Delhi. “All the accused made accusations against BJP in a calculated manner with the sole intention to portray a negative image of BJP in relation to the voters belonging to certain sections of society, namely, Bania, Poorvanchalis, Muslims, among others,” Babbar had said. The BJP leader claimed Kejriwal had made the statements to gain “cheap political mileage”.
In a tweet in December last year, Kejriwal had alleged that deleted voters included “4 lakh baniyas, 8 lakh Muslims, 15 lakh poorvanchalis and 3 lakh rest”.
On April 30, the court had granted exemption to Kejriwal and three others from appearing in court till June 7 after their advocate Mohammad Irshad said they were engaged in political events in Delhi and Haryana. On June 7, the court asked the chief minister to appear before it on July 16.
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