The Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal of Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Friday summoned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party leaders on April 30 in the defamation case filed by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar.
Babbar has sought to proceed against Arvind Kejriwal, Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, MLA Manoj Kumar and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Atishi Marlena for harming the reputation of BJP by blaming it for the alleged deletion of the names of voters from the electoral rolls in Delhi. Babbar had further alleged that Kejriwal had used social media to incite people against BJP.
The court had earlier taken cognisance of the defamation complaint filed against Kejriwal and others by Babbar.
“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 viz. Bania, Poorvanchalis, Muslims etc. The reputation of the complainant has been damaged beyond repair,” Babbar had said.
In December 2018, Kejriwal had alleged that the BJP got 30 lakh votes deleted.
On January 22, 2019, the BJP Delhi unit filed a criminal defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP members for allegations leveled by Kejriwal against the BJP of deliberately deleting names of lakhs of voters from the electoral roll in Delhi.
Terming the allegations as ‘unfortunate and false’, the BJP had stated that adding or removing voters from the electoral roll is the responsibility of the Election Commission and not of any political party.
The BJP had also knocked the doors of the Election Commission demanding de-recognition of AAP as a registered political party from the Election Commission.
In the latest, the Delhi police have launched an investigation on a complaint filed by the Election Commission regarding AAP calling people and lying that BJP has deleted their names from the voter list.
As reported earlier, the AAP call center, allegedly, has been making phone calls to people in Delhi the telling them that BJP has deleted their names from the voter list, and Arvind Kejriwal was restoring their names. Several people have reported receiving such calls, and some of them posted recordings of the calls on social media also.
After people raised objections on the misleading calls they received, the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi had requested the Delhi police to investigate the phone calls that many people in Delhi have been receiving telling that their name has been struck off from the voter list.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal recently accused the BJP President Amit Shah of harassing its call center employees after the Delhi Police commenced the action on the Election Commission of India’s request to take “requisite action” against those making ‘misleading’ phone calls to people about Delhi’s electoral roll.
