New Delhi: In a major relief for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP chief was on Monday acquitted in two separate defamation cases lodged against him by Union minister Nitin Gadkari and advocate Amit Sibal, son of Kapil Sibal, after he tendered apologies to both of them.
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was also acquitted by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal in the Sibal defamation case in which he was a co-accused along with Kejriwal. Sisodia, too, had tendered an apology to the lawyer through a letter.
The relief came from the court after the apologies were accepted by the complainants in both the cases.
Kapil Sibal told reporters that Kejriwal's apology has been accepted, adding, "we don't want to fight with anyone".
Senior advocate Pinky Anand, who appeared for Gadkari, struck a similar note and said Kejriwal closing the issue was in the "larger interest of the nation" but asserted he must understand that defamation is a very strong offence. "He should be careful in future".
The proceedings against lawyer Prashant Bhushan and BJP leader Shazia Ilmi will, however, continue in the defamation case lodged by Amit Sibal.
Kejriwal, in his two separate apology letters on Monday, said that he regretted making the remarks without any verification and accepted that they were based on "unfounded allegations".
In the 2013 case lodged by Amit Sibal it was alleged that Kejriwal, Sisodia, Bhushan and Ilmi, who was then an AAP member, had targeted him and his father Kapil Sibal over the Vodafone tax revision case.
In the defamation case filed by Gadkari, it was alleged that Kejriwal had called him "India's most corrupt".
Earlier, Kejriwal kicked up a row and angered the party’s Punjab unit by apologizing to SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia, again to end a defamation case that Majithia had filed against him for alleging that Majithia was involved in the drug trade in Punjab. However, the apology to Majithia, a former Punjab revenue minister, didn't go down well with his own party members in Punjab.
The AAP leader seems to be in a hurry to close these cases at one go. The party, sources say, is aiming to reduce the list of 33 cases in 22 courts to zero by the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
(With PTI inputs)
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