New Delhi, March 9 (IANS): A court here on Wednesday issued summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others in a criminal defamation case filed by union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the wake of DDCA controversy.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass issued summons to Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee, asking them to appear before it on April 7.

Jaitley, who filed the complaint against Kejriwal and the AAP leaders, told the court on January 5 that they had given "false and defamatory" statements against him in the Delhi and District Cricket Association case, thereby harming his reputation.

He said the AAP leaders made the statements with the intention to deflect attention from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation against a particular civil servant who was working with Kejriwal and against whom a third party had filed a complaint.

Jaitley urged the court to initiate proceedings against Kejriwal and others on charge of defaming him.

AAP leaders accused Jaitley, who headed the DDCA for 13 years till 2013, of corruption but he has denied the allegations.