A high-voltage drama was witnessed on Monday outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence where BJP MP from East Delhi Maheish Girri continued his hunger strike for the second day demanding that the CM prove his allegations in the murder case of NDMC official MM Khan. The AAP dubbed the hunger strike as a “drama” and alleged that the Delhi Police is “shielding” him in the case.
Kejriwal tweeted, “He shud be arrested n interrogated by Modi police in MM Khan murder case. Modi police shielding him.”
Accusing the CM of running a malicious campaign against him, Girri said, “I challenge him to present before the media and public any letter written by me to any authority on NDMC Hotel matter or else the CM should resign. Kejriwal should know that I will not tolerate any nefarious attack on my image. I am a spiritual person for whom image is more important than power.”
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who joined the dharna on Monday for a short period, demanded that the Delhi Government be dismissed if Kejriwal refuses to apologise to the party MP. Swamy also attacked l-G Najeeb Jung for “failing” to protect the MPs from attack by “his Governmenta” and accused him of seeking guidance from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel. “The Delhi Government will survive if Kejriwal apologises... The Government should be dismissed in national interest,” he said.
The Rajya Sabha MP charged that Kejriwal often uses the “shoot and scoot” tactic to attack political rivals. “He should either show documents (to corroborate his charges against Girri) or apologise,” he said. Asked why has he so far not sought the removal of Jung, Swamy said he was busy with the issue of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan but now he will “talk to the Government” on the issue.
Kejriwal hit back saying, “Do we’ve an open debate on murder casesIJ Is this BJP’s way to seek criminal justiceIJ Is it BJP’s criminal justice system to allow those who have murdered to stage dharna outside his residence and thereafter, prominent leaders of BJP reach there to support them.”
Alleging that police was under a lot of pressure from the BJP not to probe Girri’s role in the case, Kejriwal demanded that police should investigate the “relation” between the BJP MP and The Connaught’ hotel owner Ramesh Kakkar, who is a prime accused in the murder case.
If the Delhi Government had control over police, Girri and Tanwar would have been arrested in the murder case, he said.
Joining the dharna, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari dared the Chief Minister to face Girri and alleged that hurling baseless charges and going into hiding was an “old habit” of Kejriwal.
leader of Opposition in Delhi legislative Assembly Vijender Gupta, who met CM Arvind Kejriwal on the issue, said, “BJP legislators will also sit on dharna. Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal must end their malicious campaign or accept challenge of Girri.”
Meanwhile, MP Vijay Goel appealed to Girri to continue his fight through dharna but not hunger strike “as AAP leaders are a bunch of insensitive hoodlums unlikely to respond to such Gandhian nature of protest”.
Khan, an estate officer of NDMC, was shot dead in Jamia Nagar on May 16, a day before he was scheduled to pass the final order on the lease terms of a hotel which was functioning on a property leased out by the civic body.
The lt-Governor had on May 12 forwarded a letter written by Girri to the NDMC chairman who had allegedly demanded the removal of Khan as the Estate Officer. Kejriwal alleged that four days before Khan’s murder, Girri had approached the l-G with the hotel owner’s letter for “removal” of Khan from proceedings in a case pertaining to the licence violation.
Kejriwal, in a letter to lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, had accused him of trying to “save” Girri and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) vice-chairman Karan Singh Tanwar in Khan’s murder. Girri had asked Kejriwal for a public debate over his allegations.
In a letter to Kejriwal on June 16, Girri had invited him to Constitution Club at 4 pm on Sunday to produce “evidence” he had against him in the MM Khan murder case. Kejriwal did not accept the challenge following which Girri, accompanied by his party supporters, reached the Chief Minister’s flagstaff Road residence and sat on hunger strike on Sunday.