Arun Jaitley withdraws 10 crore defamation suit against AAP leader Kumar Vishwas after apology

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday withdrew the civil defamation case against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Executive and Hindi-language poet Kumar Vishwas.

The decision was taken after Vishwas on Monday wrote to the finance minister tendering an apology and seeking withdrawal of the 10 crore defamation suit filed by Jaitley against him.

"Kumar Vishwas wrote to Arun Jaitley tendering apology, sought withdrawal of the civil defamation case filed by the minister against him. Jaitley's lawyer says, we have accepted it," the news agency ANI reported.

Earlier, in his statement before the Delhi High Court, Vishwas said that his remarks against Union Minister Arun Jaitley were based on the information he gathered from AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.

Kumar Vishwas wrote to Arun Jaitley tendering apology, sought withdrawal of the civil defamation case filed by the minister against him. Jaitley's lawyer says,"we have accepted it." (File pics) pic.twitter.com/IerYtYPFrU

— ANI (@ANI) May 28, 2018

The defamation suit filed against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leaders - Raghav Chadha, Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh and Deepak Bajpai were closed earlier in May after they apologised to Jaitley and moved a joint settlement plea against the civil defamation case.

Read | Arun Jaitley shifted out of ICU, recovering after kidney transplant

The court, however, was continuing the defamation suit against Vishwas as he had not settled the matter. Earlier, Vishwas had maintained that he would not apologise to Jaitley and wanted to know if Kejriwal's comment about him was a lie.

The defamation suit was filed back in 2015 after Kejriwal and AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee alleged financial irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) during Jaitley's tenure as a minister.

Read | Impeachment notice a 'revenge petition', says FM Jaitley

According to Jaitley the allegations were "false and defamatory" and shown him in a bad light. He demanded a whopping amount of Rs 10 crore from Kejriwal and other AAP leaders for the damage.