A Delhi court has refused to direct the lodging of an FIR against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly misusing public money in advertisement for his own political gains, saying spending money on ads was the prerogative of the government.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said that publication of the advertisement and spending public money on it was a matter of administrative and policy decisions of the government. The complainant had alleged that on October 30, 2015, the chief minister had given an advertisement in a newspaper and dishonestly misappropriated the public money for his own political benefits.
“The expenditure on this public letter (in form of advertisement) from state exchequer is not misappropriation of money. The complainant cannot interfere in the same nor can take assistance of the court because the courts have to show judicial restraint in interfering with the policy matters of the government. It’s not the case of any personal loss of the complainant.
