Kejriwal, 5 AAP leaders get bail in Jaitley defamation case

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders, who were summoned as accused in a criminal defamation case filed against them by Union Minister Arun Jaitley, were on Thursday granted bail by a Delhi court.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass granted the relief to Kejriwal and AAP leaders Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai, on a personal bond of Rs 20,000 each with one surety of like amount.

Kejriwal and other accused had appeared in court in pursuance to the summons issued against them on March 9.

The court has now fixed the matter for May 19 for further arguments in the case.

During the hearing which commenced at around 2.35 pm, all the accused moved their bail pleas before the court which granted the relief to them. Jaitley was also present in the court room.

During the brief hearing, the counsel appearing for the accused told the court that they have not been supplied all the documents of the case after which senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, who appeared for Jaitley, said that they would provide entire sets of documents to the defence counsel.

Initially, the court granted bail to the accused on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 each with one surety of the like amount but one of the defence counsel told the court that they have brought fixed deposit receipts of Rs 20,000.

Hearing this submission, the court reduced the amount from Rs 25,000 to Rs 20,000 and fixed the matter for arguments on framing of notice for May 19.

Gopal Mohan, advisor to the CM, stood surety for Kejriwal and Delhi Minister Imran Hussain stood surety for Ashutosh, while AAP MLAs Naresh Balyan, Nitin Tyagi, Naresh Yadav and AAP leader Sanjeev stood sureties for Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Dipak Bajpai and Raghav Chadha, respectively.

Before the commencement of the hearing, supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Aam Aadmi Party gathered outside gate number 2 of the Patiala House Court complex and shouted slogans against each other.

The accused AAP leaders and Jaitley came to the court amid heavy security presence and entry to the court room was restricted by the police.

Only the accused, those giving sureties, Jaitley and lawyers appearing in the matter along with six journalists were allowed to enter the court room.

The court had on March 9 directed Kejriwal and the five other AAP leaders to appear before it today while noting that allegations were “derogatory” and amounted to “slander and libel”.