Defamation case against Atishi deferred to Oct 7

New Delhi: A court on Thursday agreed to adjourn a defamation case against chief minister-designate Atishi to Oct 7 after senior advocate Ramesh Gupta submitted that he could not meet the AAP functionary due to her busy schedule. Gupta, appearing for Atishi, also said he could not prepare the lead arguments on the defamation notice. Atishi, who will take oath as Delhi CM on Sept 21, appeared through videoconferencing. "Put up for arguments/submissions on the point of framing of notice/further proceedings on 07.10.2024 at 2pm," said the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Taniya Bamniyal. The request for adjournment was opposed by the counsel of BJP functionary Praveen Shankar Kapoor who had moved court on April 29, stating that after the liquor policy case was registered by CBI and ED, AAP and its functionaries had levelled allegations of poaching of party MLAs against BJP. On May 28, the same court issued summons to Atishi, but not to the then CM Arvind Kejriwal, another accused in the criminal defamation case. On July 23, the court granted bail to Atishi on a Rs 20,000 bail bond and one surety of the same amount. Referring to a tweet on X by Kejriwal on Jan 27 and a press conference conducted by Atishi on April 2, Kapoor had stated that due to the widespread telecast of the statements of the alleged accused, his reputation was greatly harmed and damaged before the society.Kapoor alleged that Atishi and Kejriwal had publicly stated that BJP was trying to topple AAP govt in Delhi by contacting 21 party MLAs and offering them Rs 25 crore each to join BJP. Kapoor claimed his reputation was tarnished in the eyes of the public due to these defamatory statements made by the two AAP politicians only to gain political mileage.