The complaint was filed under various sections of the IPC including 499 (defamation), 500 (punishment), 501 and 502 (printing and sale of defamatory matter).Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, who appeared for Jaitley, himself an eminent lawyer, pleaded for immediately recording the minister’s statement but the court just took cognisance of the complaint and posted the case for January 5 when Jaitley will record his testimony.
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BJP on Monday came out in strong support of Arun Jaitley with its president Amit Shah terming all the allegations levelled by AAP against the Finance Minister as “baseless and far from truth” and asserting that the party stood unitedly with him and will not allow any “conspiracy” to defame him to succeed. I have never protested against the policies of the government.
Around a month back, an AAP government-appointed probe committee recommended immediate suspension of DDCA by the BCCI for alleged irregularities including financial bungling.
Jaitley has since rejected the claims repeatedly and has described them as the chief minister’s “propaganda technique to deflect attention when you yourselves are in the dock”. “His government is following the mantra of zero tolerance towards corruption”. His office said the suit was filed in his personal capacity. “I am not against any individual”.
He also demanded that a court monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe the alleged irregularities in DDCA.
In his response, Jaitley said “we [the DDCA] considered it necessary that the national capital should get a proper stadium”, and for raising resources, 43 corporate boxes were created at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium. I met him over a cup of tea.
But he admitted that Shah did tell him to not to address any press conference on the issue.
The Congress said that the silence of senior BJP ministers Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj on the allegations raised by BJP MP Kirti Azad proves that they disapprove of the explanations given by the Finance Minister.
He said the CBI was probing the evasion of entertainment tax due to the sale of underpriced tickets for elite hospitality boxes at the Ferozeshah Kotla Ground here.
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Jaitley’s 13-year tenure as the head of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) ended in 2013.
