AAP MlA from Okhala Amanatullah Khan and party MlA from Mehrauli Naresh Yadav were arrested in Delhi on Sunday — former over the allegation of murder attempt and the latter for Punjab’s Malerkotla sacrilege incident of June 24. Punjab Police IG (Patiala Zone) Paramraj Singh Umra Nangal said in Chandigarh, “We have arrested AAP MlA Naresh Yadav from his house in Delhi. He will be produced in the Malerkotla court tomorrow.”
Amanatullah was on Sunday sent to a day’s police custody. With the two arrests, 11 AAP MlA have been arrested since the party swept to power in February 2015.
Amanatullah was first detained for questioning and then arrested, a day after he alleged in a Press conference that the woman was “pressurised” by police into giving a false statement against him.
“On July 22, the woman had recorded her statement before the magistrate under Section 164 of CrPC. She had alleged while she was returning from the legislator’s residence, a vehicle tried mowing her down and Amanatullah was sitting in it,” said Joint Commission of Police, Southeast Range, RP Upadhyay.
On Saturday, AAP leaders held a Press conference and released video in which the woman is purportedly seen telling someone “that the SHO of the Jamia Nagar police station asked her to add rape and murder charges in the FIR”.
Following the arrest, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday launched a fresh wave of attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of being behind the arrest. "Just in - Modi ji arrests one more AAP MlA," tweeted Kejriwal. Further, he tweeted in Hindi, "Anandiben in Gujarat sends Dalits and Patidars to jails in false cases, Modiji sends Delhiites to jails in false cases. Delhi and Gujarat will now fight together."
On July 19, the woman filed a complaint with police alleging that at the AAP MlA's residence in Jamia Nagar on July 10 a youth abused her and threatened that she would be killed if she did not stop politicising the matter. An FIR was subsequently registered in this regard. After her statement to the magistrate, Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) was added to the FIR, the officer said. "It is a non-bailable charge and we have arrested Khan," Upadhyay said.
Amanatullah had, however, said he did not even know if the woman came to his residence.
The Opposition party in Delhi has taken a strong note of the development calling it an "inhuman behaviour" of the AAP party workers. leader of Opposition Vijendra Gupta condemned the incident and critisised the AAP. He accused Kejriwal of being "responsible" for it. While Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said one more face has been added "to the notorious team of Arvind Kejriwal's women bashers". "His (Amanatullah) arrest has happened too late. In fact the Delhi Police should arrest him for spreading communal disharmony and for his hate speech during an Urdu Academy function earlier this year," he said.
The AAP rubbished allegation theagainst Amanatullah, claiming Delhi Police had "pressurised" the woman into giving a false statement against Khan.
"The woman is in touch with several BJP leaders and she was also taken to the magistrate by a lawyer affiliated to the party. The video also states that police asked her to file the complaint. The charge of rape was also added at the behest of police as an FIR would not have been possible otherwise," Khan had said. He had further said that he has written a complaint to DCP (South-east) of the Delhi Police to file an FIR against the SHO and the woman for "framing" him.