New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 other Aam Aadmi Party MLAs have been chargesheeted by the Delhi police in connection with the alleged assault that took place on chief secretary Anshu Prakash at the chief minister’s residence on February 19. Soon after the incident, only two AAP MLAs, Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, had been arrested by the police.‘A sinister conspiracy of the Centre through a handpicked bureaucrat’The chargesheet, now naming 11 others too, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, has triggered a political storm in Delhi. The other five AAP ministers issued a joint statement on Monday afternoon terming it “bogus” and “politically motivated”. They said this was “the latest example of the Central government’s ongoing unprecedented witch-hunt against the Delhi government, elected with highest ever mandate in India’s electoral history”.The statement by the ministers said after the Centre failed in its objective despite using all its might and coercion, which included “ keeping 400 files locked in the Lieutenant Governor’s house for more than four months in a desperate bid to search for anything to implicate the chief minister and his council of ministers in false cases”, it hatched the “latest sinister conspiracy” through a “handpicked bureaucrat of the BJP’s Central government to defame the chief minister and deputy chief minister in a totally false and untenable case.”Apart from Kejriwal, Sisodia, Khan and Jarwal, the chargesheet that has been filed before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishar has also named MLAs Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania.The chargesheet, which would now be taken up for consideration by the court on August 25, notes that Prakash was assaulted during a meeting at the chief minister’s residence on the night of February 19. Soon after the alleged attack, Prakash had lodged a complaint with the police in which he had accused Khan and Jarwal, who were sitting on either side of him during the meeting, of assaulting him.It would be pertinent to recall that the additional public prosecutor had submitted in court soon after the complaint was filed that Prakash was forced to “consent on a certain thing” during the meeting. “He was intimidated and assaulted by two people. He had also sustained injuries. The injured areas – both ears – show tenderness and mild swelling. There are bruises too,” Atul Srivastava had submitted.Difference in versions of Prakash and AAPThere have been differences in the two versions that have been offered by AAP and Prakash on what the purpose of the meeting was. While Prakash has insisted that he was called to discuss the issue of releasing advertisements and assaulted for refusing to answer “why more money was not being spent on issuing advertisements”, AAP leaders had claimed that he had used a ‘casteist’ slur against an MLA when questioned about problems in the doorstep delivery of rations and exclusion of 2.5 lakh people from the delivery system.The Delhi police had nevertheless arrested Khan and Jarwal for the assault and the duo remained in jail for sometime before they secured a bail. A police team had subsequently also gone to Kejriwal’s residence to secure the CCTV footage and later, another team had visited the chief minister on May 18 to record his statement. The police also questioned Sisodia, all 11 AAP legislators present at the meeting and the chief minister’s former adviser V.K. Jain in connection with the incident.Amanatullah Khan (left) and Prakash Jarwal. Credit: FacebookThe episode had triggered a standoff between the bureaucracy and government with the officials going demanding an unconditionalThe chargesheet in the case has been filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including 186 (obstructing a public servant), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant for doing his duty), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant to discharge his duties), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506(ii), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express is made for its punishment), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed), 149 (unlawful assembly), 34 (common intention) and 36 (effect caused partly by act and partly by omission).Reacting to the chargesheet naming top party leaders and other MLAs, five Delhi Ministers – Gopal Rai, Satyendar Jain, Kailash Gahlot, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Imran Hussain – issued a statement decrying the move.‘Modi, Shah have relentlessly unleashed agencies against Delhi government’The five MLAs accused the top BJP leadership of conspiring against AAP. “Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah suffered the worst ever electoral humiliation of their political careers in February 2015, they have not forgiven the elected government of Delhi and have relentlessly unleashed all their agencies with full might to crush the Delhi government to fulfil their arrogant desire of seeking complete revenge,” they charged.Stating that “it appears that the Modi government has learnt no lesson from its previous attempt of booking elected MLAs in false cases during last three and a half years,” the ministers said it was a “documented fact that the fast track courts in Delhi during last five months have acquitted/discharged elected MLAs is 19 out of 22 cases registered against them since February 2015″.“No stone left unturned in paralysing elected government’The ministers also accused the Centre of using all powers at its disposal to thwart the elected Delhi government from doing its work. “This is not all, from snatching powers of the elected Delhi government through an illegal notification to ACB and CBI raids, terrorising officers through raids and threats of transfers and ruining careers, no stone has been left unturned in paralysing the Delhi government,” the ministers claimed.The AAP leaders also stated that the Centre “through its consistent misuse of official might will not be able to terrorise the Delhi government, which has been carrying on its pro-people agenda despite all possible hurdles by the Centre, L-G, central agencies and sections of bureaucracy.”The statement insisted that “this entire conspiracy to name the chief minister and the deputy chief Minister in a fake and laughable criminal case is the result of the extreme frustration of the Modi government, which has so far miserably failed in all its attempts to dislodge the Delhi government elected by a historic mandate.”‘Modi government used police as political tool, compromised its credibility’“The Modi government in its hunger to settle scores with the Delhi government at all costs has turned the Delhi police into a mere political tool, which will suffer major humiliation in the court of law, where its false and imaginary case will be put to legal scrutiny and it will have to prove its ridiculous charges,” the statement said.The ministers also said that by “ordering Delhi police to stoop to such low levels where its officers spent days and nights for almost six months together to implicate the chief minister and deputy chief minister in a totally false case, the Modi government has shamelessly played with the credibility of this force”.Maken criticises AAP for assaultIn his reaction to the filing of chargesheet, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken tweeted: “Calling CS at 12 Midnight at CM house to thrash him & intimidate him-is unprecedented in Indian political history! Being elected, doesn’t give AAP a license to beat the senior-most bureaucrat. Politicians come & go, but this non-political steel frame shouldn’t be the target!”Calling CS at 12 Midnight at CM house to thrash him & intimidate him-is unprecedented in Indian political history!Being elected, doesn’t give AAP a license,to beat the senior-most bureaucrat.Politicians come & go, but this non-political steel frame shouldn’t be the target! pic.twitter.com/moZ9s2RTK4— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) August 13, 2018
