GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 18

A local court on Friday formally framed charges against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party leaders Ashish Khetan and Sanjay Singh in a defamation case in which the leaders had accused Punjab’s Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia of running a drug trade.

While Majithia — a leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal — made a personal appearance in court, AAP’s lawyers represented the three leaders after the court exempted Kejriwal — AAP’s national convenor — from personal appearance on October 15.

The SAD leader claimed Kejriwal would try to employ “delaying tactics to avoid conviction, just as he was doing” in some defamation cases in Delhi.

“I dare him to come for day-to-day hearing. I will ensure that the ‘sarkari gaadi’ takes him to jail within a month,” he said.

The court will hear the case on December 4.

This is the second case Majithia has filed against AAP’s think-tank member Khetan and the party’s Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh, but the first against Kejriwal. He had previously sued Sanjay Singh for criminal defamation in a Ludhiana court on January 12, 2015, also over the same allegations. Singh was granted bail in the case.