Delhi Police’s move politically motivated, Modi, Shah behind it, alleges AAP
A huge political row has erupted after the Delhi Police on Monday named Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia as accused in its chargesheet in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in February.
The chargesheet evoked a sharp reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for targeting the Chief Minister and his deputy. Calling the charges as “bogus”, the AAP termed the Delhi Police’s move “politically motivated”.
“All are the false allegations by frustrated elements against the CM and the Deputy Chief Minister. It is 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,” said a statement issued by AAP Ministers — Gopal Rai, Stayendar Jain, Kailash Gahlot, Rajendra Pal Gautama and Imran Hussian.
The chargesheet, which was filed before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, has also named as accused 11 AAP MLAs —Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar, and Dinesh Mohania.
In its around 1,300-page chargesheet, police have alleged that Kejriwal, Sisodia and others had criminally conspired in threatening to kill or grievous hurt the Chief Secretary.
It has also accused the AAP leaders of other offences punishable under sections of IPC, including wrongful confinement, insult, assault or using criminal force to deter public servant from his duty.
They were also chargesheeted for offence committed under section 149, which says if an offence is committed by any member of an unlawful assembly, every other member of such assembly shall be held guilty of the offence. The court has put up the chargesheet for consideration on August 25.
The CS was assaulted during a meeting at Kejriwal’s official residence on February 19 night. Police said the Chief Minister was present when the alleged assault took place.
Police have already questioned 11 AAP MLAs present at the Chief Minister’s residence for the meeting. Two of the party MLAs — Amantullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal — were arrested in the case.
Stating charge sheet “bogus” , the AAP leaders, said Modi and 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.
“The bogus chargesheet will be torn to shreds when it will be put to legal scrutiny and it will be contested with all legal strength to expose the real face of the Modi Government and its puppet Delhi Police, before the people of this country,” the AAP leaders said.
“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 joint statement quoted.
The AAP Ministers further mentioned that it is now a documented fact that the fast track courts in Delhi during last five months have acquitted and discharged elected MLAs is 19 out of 22 cases registered against them since February 2015.
“From snatching powers of the elected Delhi Government through an illegal notification to Anti Corruption Branch (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,” as mentioned in the joint statement.
The Modi Government has shamelessly played with the credibility of this force, which has the all important responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of the residents of Delhi,” said AAP leaders in their statement.