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A Rouse Avenue court on Saturday dismissed the criminal defamation complaint filed by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Parvesh Verma against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj, refusing to take cognisance of the case. While passing the order, the court observed that the imputations made by Bharadwaj were like asking questions and did not amount to defamation.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Neha Mittal of the Rouse Avenue District Court declined to take cognisance of the complaint. When a magistrate refuses cognisance, the complaint ends at the threshold: no summons is issued to the accused, and no trial begins. Verma's complaint concerned social media posts Bharadwaj made in May 2026 about an incident at a private school in West Delhi. Verma said the posts, published on X, Instagram and Facebook, damaged his and his family's reputation. Along with the complaint, he filed video clips dated May 15, 2026 and tweets from Bharadwaj's X handle. The school incident was linked to a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and Bharadwaj's posts brought Verma's name into the discussion. Verma recorded his statement before the court, with senior advocate Sacchin Puri appearing for him. He said Bharadwaj falsely alleged that he was helping an accused in the case, that the school's trust was his, and that he had a person appointed to it. Verma maintained that neither he nor his family has any connection with the school or the trust, and that he had no role in appointing a trust member, with whom he said he is not associated. He also said Bharadwaj wrongly claimed he made the trust's files disappear. Describing the harm to his reputation, Verma said friends and party workers sent him the posts on WhatsApp, and that two acquaintances told him they believed he was involved in the incident. He stated that he has contested elections four times and that his family has a political reputation. He further said Bharadwaj neither contacted him nor apologised after receiving a legal notice. Earlier, on September 1, 2026, the court had restrained Verma and his associates from altering or deleting the specified social media posts and directed Meta and X to preserve related digital logs. Witness statements had earlier been listed for July 15. (ANI)
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