Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh has filed criminal and civil defamation cases against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj over his social media posts allegedly insinuating that Singh used his influence in favour of officials of a school where a three-year-old girl was raped.
The civil defamation case has been filed before the Delhi High Court. In the suit, Singh has sought damages of ₹5 crore.
It was listed before the Joint Registrar (Judicial) Gagandeep Jindal on May 25. The Court issued summons to Bharadwaj and listed the case for further proceedings on September 7.
The criminal defamation case came up for hearing before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Paras Dalal of the Rouse Avenue Courts on May 22. The Court has listed the matter for examination of the complainant (Singh) and witnesses on June 9 and June 11.
It is Singh’s case that Bharadwaj posted “false, malicious and highly defamatory” tweets and videos on May 15 and May 16 from his X handle. The posts alleged that Singh misused his position as a minister to appoint his alleged associate as a trustee in a private school trust worth nearly ₹500 crores and that the said trust belongs to Singh.
According to Singh, Bharadwaj also insinuated that Singh exercised his influence in favour of the employees of the school run by the said trust, who are the accused persons in the POCSO case.
He further argued that Bharadwaj made insinuations of corruption, nepotism and file suppression against him, lowering his reputation in the eyes of the public.
“These imputations are malicious, false and full of lies made with the intent to harm the reputation of the Plaintiff, and were published knowing or having reason to believe that they would harm his reputation in the eyes of the public, peers, media, and society at large. It is stated that the allegations are completely baseless, false to the knowledge of the Defendant and made intentionally to and with the knowledge that they would defame the Plaintiff,” Singh argued.
Senior Advocate Sacchin Puri along with advocates Praveen Kumar, Surbhi Sharma, Sarthak Gupta, Surender Sinha, Sumar Raj and Nikunj Tripathi appeared for Parvesh Sahib Singh.
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