New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal admitted his mistake of retweeting an alleged defamatory video by YouTuber Dhruv Rathee related to the BJP IT Cell in 2018. Kejriwal presented his case in the Supreme Court against the summons issued in a criminal defamation case.
During the hearing before a bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Kejriwal’s plea was to quash the summons in the case. The bench, including Justice Dipankar Datta, scheduled the next hearing for March 11 and ordered a stay on the trial court proceedings in the meantime.
The Delhi High Court, on February 5, upheld the summoning order by the Magistrate stating that re-tweeting defamatory content constitutes defamation under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code. The Magistrate had initially summoned Kejriwal, considering the re-tweet as prima facie defamatory.
The complainant in the case is Vikas Pandey (Sankrityayan), the founder of ‘I Support Narendra Modi’ social media page. He alleged that Kejriwal’s retweet of the video damaged his reputation. The Supreme Court is now set to further review the case on March 11.
