New Delhi : After senior advocate Ram Jethmalani stepped down as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s lawyer in a defamation case on Wednesday, the war of words between the two — over the use of the term ‘crook’ for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley — took a new turn on Friday with Jethmalani alleging that the Kejriwal had “used worse abuses” than that for Jaitley.
Jethmalani said to Kejriwal in a letter dated 20 July, “When Arun Jaitley filed the 1st suit and criminal case, you naturally sought my services. Ask your conscience how many times you used worse abuses than a mere ‘crook’. You have hundred times asked me to teach this crook a lesson.” A copy of which was uploaded on his blog on Friday.
This comes after Kejriwal had told the Delhi High Court on Monday that there were no instructions from him to his counsel Jethmalani to use objectionable remarks against Jaitley. The chief minister’s affidavit said, “With due respect, it is submitted that neither Kejriwal nor the counsel briefing the senior counsel Jethmalani gave instructions to the senior counsel to use the objectionable words on 17 May, 2017.”
Kejriwal even wrote a letter to Jethmalani to refute his claim that objectionable words were used in the proceedings before the Joint Registrar on 17 May as per his instructions, the affidavit said.
Jethmalani had used the word “crook” against the finance minister during his cross-examination before a joint registrar, PTI reported. A fresh Rs 10 crore defamation suit was then filed by Jaitley against Kejriwal over Jethmalani using the offensive word during a cross-examination of the previous defamation suit.
The cross-examination was being done in a Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders that Jaitley filed in 2015. In December 2015, Jaitley had filed a civil defamation suit against AAP leaders Kejriwal, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee, claiming that they made “false and defamatory” statements in the case involving the DDCA, thereby harming his reputation.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply