New Delhi: As insisted by Union finance minister ArunJaitely, Delhi chief minister and AamAadmi Party (AAP) chief ArvindKejriwal along with his four colleagues apologisedto him on Monday for accusing him of corruption during his tenure as the head of Delhi and District Cricket Association. A joint application was moved in the Delhi High Court and city court by the parties to settle the over two-year-old litigation.

Kejriwal, along with senior AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Ashutosh, RaghavChadha and Deepak Bajpai, all named in the criminal and civil defamation case slapped by Jaitley, apologised to the finance minister.

Kumar Vishwas, an AAP leader who has drifted apart from Kejriwal, declined to apologise. He said he would be failing thousands of AAP volunteers if he chose to apologise for calling out political adversaries for their alleged corruption.

Monday’s apology was the fourth such tendered by Kejriwal and his colleagues. Since March 15, the leaders have issued written apologies to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia, Union minister NitinGadkari, and Congress leader KapilSibal’s son AmitSibal for making defamatory remarks.

The party said they did so to settle as many as 20 defamation cases filed against them by various political leaders across India, adding that they wanted to concentrate their energies on serving the people instead of fighting cases. The matter pertaining to Jaitley and Kejriwal’s applications will be heard on Tuesday.

In five separate letters, all dated April 1, Kejriwal and his aides — Ashutosh, Singh, Chadha and Bajpai — expressed regret over their comments against the Union minister during his tenure as DDCA president. Singh had criticisedKejriwal after he had sent a written apology to Majithia last month