Assam court issues arrest warrant against Arvind Kejriwal

Guwahati: A magisterial court at Diphu, headquarter of Karbi Anglong district of Assam, has issued a bailable arrest warrant against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a defamation case filed against him by an Executive Member of Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council (KAADC), Surjo Rangphar, for his ‘defamatory’ tweet on the educational qualification of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rongphar had filed the defamation case in the magistrate’s court on December 26 last year. A case under Sections 499, 500 and 501 of IPC was registered against Kejriwal.
On December 15, 2016, Kejriwal had allegedly tweeted that Narendra Modi was only 12th passed and all other succeeding degrees were fake.) First class Magistrate, Diphu, Naba Kumar Deka Baruah, on Monday issued the warrant of Rs 10,000 against Kejriwal for his absence from the court during the hearing of the case and summoned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader to appear before the court during the next hearing fixed on May 8.
The magistrate had earlier issued summons against the Delhi Chief Minister to appear in his court on January 30 last. Kejriwal, however, through his lawyer, Gurpreet Singh Uppal, had sought time from the court until April 7 for his personal appearance, saying it would not be possible for him to leave Delhi due to Municipality polls on April 23 and the nature of his work.
The magistrate in his order said, “The perusal of case record reveals that the accused Arvind Kejriwal has not appeared before this court on the earlier occasion on January 30, 2017, availing adjournment for long duration of more than two months by a prayer as submitted by his advocate although the accused was not dispensed with personal attendance by this court as provided by Section 205(I) of the CrPC, 1973 as amended up to date. Considering the above, the petition of his advocate is rejected.”
The court issued a bailable warrant of Rs 10,000 against Kejriwal asking him to be present in the court on May 8, the next date of hearing.