New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party’s national joint secretary, Gopal Italia, was arrested on Monday, April 17, by the Surat Police for his alleged defamatory remarks made against Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, Harsh Sanghvi and C.R. Patil, in the run-up to the state Assembly elections last year. Italia was later released on bail.“We arrested Gopal Italia in a pending defamation complaint against him. He was later released on bail from the crime branch police station,” Indian Express quoted L.D. Vaghadia of the Surat Crime Branch as saying.Italia was served a notice by the Surat Crime Branch a few days before he was arrested and was asked to be present in its office on Monday, April 17 afternoon. He appeared before the police on Monday after holding discussions with his party members. Once in office, the officials recorded his statements and carried out procedures to arrest him, the newspaper said citing sources.According to the first information report, Italia had called Sanghavi “Drugs Sanghavi” during the last year’s election campaign, NDTV reported. Italia is also accused of making defamatory statements against Patil on social media in August 2022 after an alleged attack on an AAP member Manoj Sorathiya in Surat. The complaint was filed by a BJP worker Pratap Chodwadia in September 2022.Italia has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 500 (punishment for defamation), 501(1)(b) (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).AAP chief and Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said the police action against Italia is a result of the BJP being scared of AAP’s growth in Gujarat and wanting to “finish off the Aam Aadmi Party”. As a debutant in the last year’s Assembly elections, AAP had secured five out of 182 seats in the state, and more importantly, garnered 16% of the vote share.Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal wrote, “The BJP is so shocked by the spectacular performance of the Aam Aadmi Party in Gujarat that it has now arrested our Gujarat leader Gopal Italia. Now BJP has only one aim, how to finish Aam Aadmi Party. These people will put everyone in jail one by one.”गुजरात में आम आदमी पार्टी के शानदार प्रदर्शन से बीजेपी इस कदर बौखलाई है कि अब हमारे गुजरात के नेता गोपाल इटालिया को गिरफ़्तार कर लिया है। बीजेपी का अब बस एक मक़सद है किस तरह आम आदमी पार्टी को ख़त्म किया जाए। एक एक करके सबको जेल में डालेंगे ये लोग।— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 17, 2023Italia, for his part, called his arrest a case of harassment. “Such statements are made by all political leaders against one another. How come an FIR was lodged only against me? They (police and government) are misusing their power,” he said, according to the IE report.AAP Gujarat unit chief, Isudan Gadhvi, reacted to the arrested in a video message, accusing the BJP of “misusing the power of the police”. “Our national leader Gopal Italia has been arrested by the Surat crime branch in a pending case in which he had referred to C.R. Paatil as a former bootlegger. The sentiments of BJP workers were hurt… and they registered a case… We condemn the incident… C.R. Paatil should not misuse his power. Don’t try to threaten AAP leaders to get them questioned in fake criminal cases. They want to reap political benefit by resorting to such means and misusing the power of the police,” Gadhvi said.