Legal Notice to BJP

December 13, 2014

LEGAL NOTICE

To,

 1  Mr. Ramesh Bidhuri

     Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha)

     General Secretary

     Bhartiya Janta Party

     11, Ashoka Road

     New Delhi

2. Mr. Ashwani Upadhyay

    Spokesperson

    Delhi BJP Unit

    14, Pandit Pant Marg

    New Delhi-110001

Dear Sir,

Under instructions from and on behalf of my client Aam Aadmi Party through its Secretary Mr. Pankaj Gupta having its registered office at A-119 Kaushambi Ghaziabad,U.P-201010 I hereby serve you with the following legal notice; -

1.            That my client the Aam Aadmi Party (hereinafter referred to as “AAP”) is a registered political party. The aim and objective of my Client AAP in entering politics is not to come to power but to change the current corrupt and self-serving system of politics forever so that no matter who comes to power in the future, the system is strong enough to effectively and swiftly deal with corruption at any level of governance .My Client has always been fully transparent and open about its finances and list of the entire donors are disclosed online. My Client AAP and   the only political party among the existing parties in India to do so. Mr. Arvind Kejriwal is the National Convenor of my Client AAP and is a highly educated person belonging to a reputed family. He was Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Government of India, New Delhi and resigned from the said post in order to take up urgent social activities especially crusade against corruption.  My Client AAP and its National Convenor Mr. Arvind Kejriwal command immense respect amongst public and after making a historic electoral debut my Client formed its Government in Delhi with Mr. Kejriwal defeating the sitting Chief Minister Mrs. Sheila Dixit, becoming an MLA from New Delhi constituency and ultimately the Chief Minister of NCT of Delhi.  In recognition of his valuable services to the community, Mr. Kejriwal was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for emergent Leadership in the year 2006 in addition to numerous other awards.  In the year 2014 Mr. Kejriwal was featured in Times 2014 Time 100 List of the Most Influential People in the World.

2.            That having won 28 Assembly seats in the elections to the Legislative Assembly of Delhi in 2013, my client AAP was steered to victory under the leadership of its National Convenor Mr. Kejriwal to near majority.  My Client had made numerous promises to the electorate especially to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed within stipulated time and having failed due to obstructionist attitude of persons like you and the two parties namely Indian National Congress (Congress) and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), the said Bill could not go through as a result whereof Mr. Kejriwal resigned from the Chief Ministership.  My Client AAP and Mr. Kejriwal has become an eyesore for you and other members of the said two parties viz., BJP & Congress. 

3.            That sometimes during November – December 2014 you Noticee No. 1 and 2, aided and abetted by your party BJP, entered into a criminal conspiracy with Mr. Ashish Sood Media Incharge of the BJP, Mr. Praveen Shankar Kapoor and others and in pursuance of the said criminal conspiracy addressed a Press Conference on 01.12.2014 followed by a press release of the same date which inter-alia made false, unfounded, uncorroborated and malicious imputations concerning my client and his party intending to harm, or knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm, the reputation of my client and his party.

4.            That you Noticee No. 1 and 2 along with others referred to above devised a novel method of making libellous allegations asking the media people and proposing to ask the Finance Minister of India to further probe into highly libellous and defamatory insinuations against my Client, its National Convenor Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and leader Mr. Manish Sisodia.  For instance you had stated inter-alia, that my Client has indulged in procuring funds and financial aid from Arab & other Gulf countries & Pakistan through hawala, misusing the funds for promoting Naxalites, etc and that its National Convenor Mr. Arvind Kejriwal is a liar, nautanki baaz, always prepared to mislead public, obtained the prestigious Magsaysay Award from the funds of the Ford Foundation besides dubbing him as a CIA agent, misappropriated various funds raised through undesirable means, thus defaming my Client and dubbing its national leader Mr. Kejriwal as a anti national being.  The Press Release containing all these false imputations is already with you on the basis of which all the malicious allegations made by you were widely published in local, domestic, national and international media. 

5.            In the past also you Noticee No. 2 Mr. Ashwani Upadhyay indulged in anti party activities for which you were expelled on  April 6 2014 from the party by my  Client AAP for calling Mr. Kejriwal a “CIA Agent and Liar”, amongst other totally false and motivated insinuations which were widely covered and published in both print and electronic media on 7 March 2014.

6.            That from the tenor of your aformentioned Press Release and the conference that you held, it is clear that not only you intend to defame my Client but also to illegally and mischievously deter various persons and organisations to fund and support my Client and its Leaders causing set back to my Client in the electoral field.

7.            That by addressing the media persons in the said Press Conference and also by words spoken and intended to be read, made and published the said false and defamatory imputations concerning my aforesaid Client, its National Convenor Mr. Kejriwal and his colleagues. All this has irreparably harmed the reputation of my aforesaid Client and its top leaders tarnishing the image of my Client, its top leaders and their families.  By the said imputations, you Noticees and others referred to above, directly or indirectly, in the estimation of others lowered the moral or intellectual character of my Client and its Leaders and also caused immense damage to its reputation and the reputation of its leaders resulting in depletion of its membership, sources of revenue and general hatred for my Client and other Office Bearers which are likely to adversely affect prospects of my Client at the elections.

8.            That your malafide intentions are further clear from the fact that in two Writ Petitions being WP(C) No. 3412 of 2012 titled “Manohar Lal Sharma versus Union of India & Others” and WP(C) No. 6414 of 2013 titled M.L Sharma versus Union of India, detailed inquiry was held by the Authorities into the various affairs of alleged financial and other irregularities.  The Hon’ble High Court of Delhi vide its judgment dated 24.01.2013 had closed the matter in the aforesaid Writ Petition No. 3412 of 2012 because no such allegation could be proved.  As regards the other Writ Petition No. 6414 of 2013 Ministry of Home Affairs, Union of India has filed an affidavit stating that there is no violation of law in the funds of my Client AAP which too has been widely published.  The said judgment of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi dated 24.01.2013 as also the stand of Union of India is well known to you and others of your party.

9.            You are therefore hereby called upon;

a)            To tender written unconditional and unqualified apology to my Client for having made such false and defamatory imputations about my Client and to Office Bearers such as Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, Mr. Manish Sisodia, etc.;

b)           To further hold a similar type of Press Conference expressing regret for having made defamatory allegations against my Client issuing a detailed statement completely retracting your defamatory statements made against my Client and Mr. Kejriwal and his Colleague.

In case you fail to comply with this notice within 7 days, my Client shall be constrained to take further legal action against you and others at your cost and peril without any further reference to you.

Copy of this mail is being kept for my record.

(RAHUL MEHRA)

              Advocate