Court takes cognizance on defamation complaint by Delhi's Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot against BJP MLA Vijender Gupta

New Delhi [India], September 1 : A Special Court here on Wednesday took cognizance of a criminal defamation complaint by Delhi Cabinet Minister Kailash Gehlot filed against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Vijender Gupta for allegedly making a false statement of corruption against him in relation to the procurement of public buses.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Ravindra Kumar Pandey after taking cognizance in the matter, "put up the matters for examination of complainant U/s 200 Cr.PC pre-summoning evidence on September 18, 2021."
Delhi Cabinet Minister Kailash Gehlot, who is holding several portfolios including transport ministry has recently filed a criminal defamation complaint against BJP MLA Vijender Gupta for allegedly making a false statement of corruption against him in relation to the procurement of public buses.
Gehlot stated that Gupta has defamed and tarnished his reputation.
The complainant, Gehlot alleged that the accused, Gupta intentionally for malafide purposes and to gain political mileage has levelled defamatory, scandalous, mischievous, false, and scurrilous allegations on the complainant both verbal as well as in writing.
The accused has been continuously making allegations of corruption against the complainant since March 8 this year and he has continued to make reckless, irresponsible, and false allegations with a deliberate intention and ill-will to tarnish the reputation of the complainant in the eyes of right-thinking people, said complaint copy.
Gehlot represented by advocates Dhruv Rohatak and Abhinav Sharma, stated that the accused, for the purposes of harassing and defaming the complainant, has used social media platforms irresponsibly and in a destructive manner to malign and target the reputation of the complainant.
The accused has levied illogical, outrageous, reprehensible, and intolerable allegations on the complainant which are neither true nor correct. The false, reckless, and defamatory allegations were made by the accused on innuendo and hunches, without checking the veracity or truthfulness of the allegations being made by him, the plea read.
The vilifying and scandalous allegations were made by the accused in order to stall the ambitious project of the Delhi government to give major relief to the residents of Delhi who have chosen the Aam Aadmi Party over any other political group. The accused made scurrilous, misplaced, and false allegations against the Complainant with an intention to teach people of Delhi a lesson for voting in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party, the plea alleged.
The effort of the Delhi Government as well as that of the complainant was to bring transparency and accountability to the process of procurement and maintenance of buses for trouble-free performance and availability of a sufficient number of buses at any given point in time.
The DTC had made attempts to maintain the buses at their own Depots through their trained staff but this led to frequent breakdowns and non-availability of buses at any given point of time besides being too expensive to maintain, stated plea.
Along with a criminal complaint, Kailash Gehlot had also filed a civil defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against Vijender Gupta, seeking Rs 5 crore in damages and sought removal of social media posts by the latter alleging irregularities in the procurement of public buses.