Delhi court grants bail to Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia in defamation case filed by BJP's Vijender Gupta on personal bond of Rs 10,000

A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in connection with a defamation suit filed by BJP leader Vijender Gupta. The court directed Kejriwal and Sisodia to furnish a bail bond of Rs 10,000 each. Next date of hearing in the case is on 25 July. On Monday, the court summoned the Delhi ministers on 16 July in the filed by Gupta. He had accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders of “maligning” his image by accusing him of attempting to kill Kejriwal. [caption id=“attachment_4682791” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. Twitter@AamAadmiParty[/caption] Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said the allegations against Kejriwal and Sisodia were “prima facie defamatory”. In a statement on Monday, the court noted, “There exists sufficient ground to proceed against the respondents… Accordingly, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia are summoned for commission of offence of defamation under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code." Gupta, who is the leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, had claimed in the complaint that his reputation was tarnished because of the tweets and news reports of the statements made by the AAP leaders. He also said that both of them have “not apologised or expressed any remorse” about their actions. He had further alleged that Kejriwal and Sisodia’s statements were made with the “ulterior motives” to harm his reputation and malign his image in order to gain “political mileage” in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. As reported by The Indian Express, Gupta was quoted saying in the Delhi Assembly, “I have filed a defamation case in Patiala House court against them (Kejriwal and Sisodia) as they did not reply to my legal notice”. In an interview, Kejriwal said that the BJP wanted to get him killed by his own Personal Security Officer (PSO) in the manner in which Indira Gandhi had been assassinated. Sisodia had also accused Gupta of being a part of the alleged conspiracy. In a response to the alleged accusations, Gupta had tweeted, “Before the slapgate on 4 May, Arvind Kejriwal asked the liaison officer to lift the security cover around his vehicle. The chief minister’s instruction is registered in the roznamcha (police diary). The AAP could not receive electoral gain out of it because I exposed this, so out of frustration Kejriwal is saying that his PSO reports to the BJP.” With inputs from agencies