CM and Dy CM discharged by court in CS assault case
New Delhi: India A Delhi court has discharged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and nine other accused persons in relation with the 2018 case of the alleged assault on former Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash during a meeting — prompting a fresh attack by the Aam Aadmi Party, which sought an apology from the BJP-led Centre.
Significantly, the court went on to frame charges against AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal under IPC Sections 186, which pertains to voluntarily obstructing a public servant and 353, which pertains to assault on a public servant, and other relevant sections.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta, while discharging CM Kejriwal and Deputy CM Sisodia, stated that it was clearly demonstrated from the 164 CrPC statement of witness V K Jain that the Chief Minister asked the two MLAs to refrain from any unruly behaviour during the day of the incident when some MLAs started asking Prakash some questions.
"Once the Chief Minister did so, there was no occasion for the Deputy Chief Minister and other MLAs present there to do the same, especially when as per the version of said witness, the complainant himself left the meeting immediately after taking permission from the Chief Minister," the order stated, while noting that the contention raised on behalf of prosecution/complainant that CM, Deputy CM and other MLAs present there did not intervene during the alleged assault, holds no ground.
Meanwhile, the defendants, Khan and Jarwal, contended that there was an inconsistency in star witness V K Jain's statement to the police and to the magistrate.
On this, the court noted that this alone was not sufficient to discard the allegations against the two MLAs and that Jain's statement was sufficient at this stage to show their complicity in the offence.
The alleged incident took place on the intervening night of February 19 and 20, three years back, where Prakash alleged that he was assaulted by 13 AAP MLAs, including the Delhi CM and Deputy CM, after being called for a meeting at Kejriwal's residence.
'Vindicated'
Soon after the order was made public, CM Kejriwal tweeted, "Satyamev Jayate" and his Deputy held a presser, where he said that this was a victory for justice and that the "conspiracy hatched by the PM, the Central Government and the BJP to malign the image of the CM of Delhi has been exposed".
Sisodia said that CM Kejriwal had become one of the most popular leaders in the country because of his good governance and that the BJP was afraid of this. This is why a "false and fabricated" case was filed against him, the Deputy CM claimed.
He went on to suggest to the Centre that it would be better if they spent time and effort doing public good instead of "trying to stop an elected government from doing its work".
