New Delhi: Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain submitted on Friday in a city court that he was defamed by sacked minister Kapil Mishra and a BJP MLA who had allegedly levelled graft charges against him.

Mr Jain, who appeared before the metropolitan magistrate Shefali Barnala Tandon, recorded presummoning evidence in support of his separate complaints against Mr Mishra and BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa. After completion of Jain’s testimony, his advocate Gautam Dhamija submitted that he did not want to examine any other witness in support of the complaints. The court listed the criminal defamation complaints for August 23.

Mr Jain, while reiterating the contents of his complaints, claimed that Mr Mishra had allegedly made defamatory statements against him in the media. He deposed that Mr Mishra had also used his official Twitter handle to defame him and instead of going to any probe agency, he had levelled the allegations.

Kapil Mishra

He also submitted that Mr Sirsa had alleged that the minister was circulating huge amounts of illegitimate money within the party.

The court had earlier taken cognisance of the complaints filed against Mr Mishra and Mr Sirsa. The complaints by Mr Jain were filed on May 19. If convicted, the offence of defamation entails a maximum punishment of two years. Mr Jain in his plea against Mr Mishra, who was earlier heading the water department, submitted that on May 7 he had made a statement accusing him of giving a bribe of Rs 2 crore to  Arvind Kejriwal on May 5.

He said his family members and people from his constituency had questioned him about the incident which had caused irreparable damage to his reputation.

Regarding Mr Sirsa, Mr Jain said that on May 9, the lawmaker had made libellous statements by levelling corruption allegation against him. He said that making a statement on the basis of “hearsay” without any proof or evidence supporting it, is not only unbecoming of an MLA, but also an offence of defamation.