Embarrassed in court, Arvind Kejriwal's lawyer refuses to appear for him in defamation case

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's lawyer Anoop George Chaudhari on Friday said that he will no longer be able to appear for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in the defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

In a letter stating that he will be withdrawing from the case, Chaudhari said that he had "inadequate" briefing which resulted in an "embarrassing situation" on February 12. 

Senior Counsel Anoop George Chaudhari quits as @ArvindKejriwal lawyer in the @arunjaitley defamation case. Blames bad briefing which led to embarrassment before the court during cross examination pic.twitter.com/sdljzm8jOM — Bar & Bench (@barandbench) February 16, 2018

Before Chaudhari, senior counsel Ram Jethmalani had refused to appear for Kejriwal and said that the Delhi CM had "lied" when he said he had not instructed him to use the word "crook" while cross examining Arun Jaitley.

Jethmalani had also said that a Rs 2 crore fee that Kejriwal owed him can be waived off. "It is no problem as I work for free for thousands of people," he had then said.

When Jethmalani had called Jaitley a "crook" in court, the Finance Minister had asked if the comment had the sanction of Kejriwal. While Jethmalani had said Kejriwal was in agreement, the Delhi Chief Minister denied giving the instructions to the senior counsel to use the objectionable words.

Jaitley had filed a defamation case against Kejriwal and five other leaders of the AAP claiming that made baseless allegations against him, accusing him of corruption during his 13-year-term as head of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). The Finance Minister has sought Rs 10 crore in damages for the harm caused to his reputation.