New Delhi, March 19 (IANS): AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta Wednesday recorded his statement before a court here in a defamation case filed by the party against a news portal and a TV channel alleging that they conducted a fake sting operation to harm the party's reputation.

According to a petition by the Aam Aadmi Party, a CD of the sting operation was released to the media by Anuranjan Jha, CEO of the Media Sarkar portal run by a news channel.

Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain recorded Gupta's statement and listed the matter for July 23 for examination of another complainant witness and local legislator Dinesh Mohnia.

The complainant said the doctored CD was shown to defame the party's image in the eyes of voters.

Gupta told the court the media portal circulated the CD containing defamatory allegations against the party and its candidates before the Delhi assembly polls.

The petition said the act of the accused was "clearly malafide and calculated to defame the complainant in the eyes of voters of Delhi".