Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others were on Monday asked by a Delhi court to respond to a plea filed by former Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash challenging their discharge in a case of alleged assault on him in 2018. Special Judge Geetanjali Goel issued notices to Kejriwal and 10 other AAP leaders on the plea challenging a Magistrate court’s order that discharged the politicians on August 11.
The criminal case relates to the alleged assault on Prakash during a meeting at Kejriwal's official residence on February 19, 2018.
The court directed Kejriwal, Sisodia and other AAP MLAs Rajesh Rishi, Nitin Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Ajay Dutt, Sanjeev Jha, Rituraj Govind, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, and Dinesh Mohania to file their replies by November 23, when the court will further hear the matter.
Besides, the court also issued notices to AAP MLAs Amantullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal against whom the court had ordered framing of charges.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra and advocate Kumar Vaibhav, appearing for Anshu Prakash, urged the judge to set aside the order passed by the Magisterial court and direct it to frame the charges against all the accused in the case. The plea stated that the Magisterial court erred in discharging Kejriwal and others in its August order.
Prakash also sought the framing of additional charges including 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC against Khan and Jarwal.
“The trial court has conducted a roving enquiry into the allegations in the chargesheet and has drawn erroneous inferences and conclusions without having the benefit of examination of the prosecution witnesses. Many such inferences and findings are also contrary to the record,” the petition said.
The Magisterial court had discharged Kejriwal, saying his conduct clearly was not in consonance with the allegations levelled against him.
Regarding Khan and Jarwal, the court had said that prima facie case was made out against them to proceed further with the trial after framing of charges against them. Kejriwal, Sisodia and nine other AAP MLAs were granted bail in October 2018. Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal were granted bail earlier by the High Court. The alleged assault had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi Government and its bureaucrats.