The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted protection from arrest till May 18 to AAP MlA Jarnail Singh who was accused of assaulting an MCD engineer and preventing him from demolishing an illegal construction in West Delhi. A Bench of Justice Sunita Gupta, however, asked the MlA from Tilak Nagar constituency, to appear before the investigating officer (IO) on Thursday at 4 pm and even thereafter as and when required to join the ongoing probe.
The court also directed Singh “not to make, directly or indirectly, any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the accusation against him so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer.” It also said that the petitioner (Singh) shall not leave Delhi without prior permission of the court. “Under the circumstances, re-list on May 18. Till then, petitioner be not arrested,” the court said.
The court’s directions came on the plea by Singh who had moved the High Court after the trial court had on May 2 refused him anticipatory bail in the case. During arguments, senior advocate HS Phoolka contended that police were trying to shield ‘corrupt’ MCD official Athar Mustaffa who had gone to demolish an illegal construction in West Delhi area on April 28 even though he was not the area Junior Engineer (JE).
Countering Phoolka, Additional Solicitor-General (ASG) Sanjay Jain said Mustaffa was given charge on that day to head the demolition team and he had taken police and MCD personnel with him. Phoolka alleged that the JE had demanded money from the house owner. The ASG, however, termed it as a “cock and bull story”, adding the house owner had constructed a five-storey building without sanction plan and the MlA was trying to protect the unauthorised construction.
“They make big statements against corruption, why are they trying to shield wrongdoersIJ” the ASG said, adding “he is an MlA, supposed to uphold law, not promote anarchy.” Jain also said that custodial interrogation of Singh is required for recovery of the torn demolition order, mobile phone of the MlA and to elicit the details of persons accompanying him who helped him in causing obstruction to the Government officials in discharging their official duties.
“The two complaints given against complainant (Mustaffa) were duly received in the police station,” Phoolka had said, adding that an FIR was registered in the presence of Singh at the police station on the day of the incident. The JE, however, had claimed in the FIR that when Singh was shown documents authorising the demolition, he tore them up.
On the basis of Mustaffa’s complaint, police slapped Section 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC against Jarnail Singh.