Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shazia Ilmi on Friday apologised to Amit Sibal, the son of former Union minister Kapil Sibal, in a criminal defamation case filed in 2013, PTI reported. Amit Sibal, a senior advocate, had filed the case against Ilmi for her remarks she had made when she was a member of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Ilmi and Sibal submitted a joint application before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal. The complainant said Ilmi had accepted that her allegations unfounded and she regretted making them, PTI reported. The court reserved order on their application for April 19.

Amit Sibal had filed a defamation case against Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal and some other AAP leaders in 2013 for alleging that he had a conflict of interest in seeking to revise a tax demand on Vodafone. In September 2014, a lower court had put all the four accused, including Manish Sisodia and then AAP member Prashant Bhushan, on trial for the charge under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code.

The case proceedings against Bhushan will, however, continue.

On March 19, Kejriwal and Sisodia had apologised to Amit Sibal and his father for their remarks. The apologies came days after Kejriwal apologised to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia for alleging that he was involved in the drug trade in Punjab. On April 4, the Delhi High Court had disposed of two defamation suits that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had filed against Kejriwal, after the latter apologised. The Delhi chief minister has also apologised to Union minister Nitin Gadkari in another defamation case.