Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal gets bail in slander case brought by Arun Jaitley

Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party (AAP) chief and its chief ministerial candidate for Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal gestures to his supporters after casting his vote outside a polling station during the state assembly election in New Delhi February 7, 2015

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks with the media in New Delhi November 23, 2015.

Thu Apr 7, 2016

A local court granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday in a slander case brought by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley which deepened the rivalry between the ruling party and the opposition.

Kejriwal, who routed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi state elections last year, accused Jaitley in December of allowing fraud at a cricket association he ran from 2003 to 2013.

Jaitley, a top member of the BJP, has denied any wrongdoing and sued Kejriwal for 100 million rupees ($1.5 million) for slander.

The court granted bail to Kejriwal and five members of his Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday. The case will be heard on May 19, said Pinaki Mishra, one of Jaitley's lawyers.

A spokesman for the AAP declined to comment, saying the matter was sub judice.

Kejriwal and the BJP have been at loggerheads since the self-styled anti-graft crusader won elections in the Indian capital.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra, Tommy Wilkes and Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Nick Macfie)