Ram Jethmalani offers to defend Arvind Kejriwal for 'free'

NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday offered to defend Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for free in the court, if the latter is not able to pay his fees.

"Even if (Delhi) government doesn't pay or he can't pay, I will appear for free, will treat him (Kejriwal) as one of my poor clients," Jethmalani, who has raised a bill of Rs 3.42 crore for his services to Kejriwal, was quoted.
He also claimed that he only charges rich and his services are free for poor.

"All this is instigated by (Arun) Jailtley who's afraid of my cross-examination," he said while taking a jibe at the Union finance minister.

Earlier, Times Now had reported that the Delhi government wanted the taxpayer to pay the cost of Kejriwal's defence, running into crores.

According to documents accessed by Times Now, the bill raised by Jethmalani on December 1, 2016, quotes Rs 1 crore retainership for representing Kejriwal and an additional Rs 22 lakh per appearance. Jethmalani has made 11 appearances so far, leading to a total of Rs 3.42 crore, even before the cross-examination stage is over.
The documents show that deputy CM Manish Sisodia wrote on a file on December 6, 2016, following the bill raised by Jethmalani's office, that it be cleared because the matter was linked to CBI raids on the CM's office on December 15, 2015,



wherein several files were seized.

The file goes on to say that "the Chief Minister made statements in the media explaining the stand of the government on such raids. Defamation cases, criminal as well as civil, were filed against the CM pursuant to the statements made in his official capacity".

The file then went to the litigation branch of the law department in the Delhi government which, on December 7, 2016, said the law department could not give any approval on the matter, and instead approval of the administrative department whose files had been seized by the CBI were needed to clear these payments. Clearances from the finance department and Delhi lieutenant governor's office were also needed, it added.
In 2015, Jaitley had filed a criminal defamation complaint against Kejriwal and AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai over their comments over the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) controversy, seeking their prosecution for offences that entail a punishment of up to two years in jail. A civil defamation suit has also been filed by Jaitley before the Delhi High Court in relation to the matter seeking Rs 10 crore in damages. Sources said that the Lt Governor is learnt to have written to Kumar seeking his advice on whether the payment should be cleared or not.