Delhi court grants Kejriwal day's exemption in defamation case

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was summoned as accused in a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, was on Thursday granted exemption from personal appearance by a court here. [caption id=“attachment_2767172” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Naresh Sharma / Firstpost[/caption] Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh granted the relief to Kejriwal for the day after his counsel told the court that the chief minister would not be able to attend the proceedings as he was engaged in some government meetings. The court has now fixed the matter for further hearing on 6 June. Kejriwal was summoned as an accused by the court in February on a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by Bidhuri, an MP from South Delhi parliamentary constituency, under section 500 (defamation) of the IPC. Bidhuri has alleged in his complaint that Kejriwal had defamed him during an interview given to a news channel. He has alleged that during the interview, Kejriwal had falsely said that criminal cases were pending against Bidhuri and a Congress leader but the Delhi Police was not taking action against them. Bidhuri claimed that no case was pending against him and Kejriwal had defamed him by giving such statement.