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Delhi

Kejriwal protests outside CM’s house, held

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders, including Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas, were among the 200 people detained from outside Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s residence on Friday.

The party members was protesting outside her house since 7 am, against the demolition of buildings in south Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh locality.

‘Almost 200 people had gathered outside Dikshit’s 3-Motilal Nehru Marg residence at 7 am. Kejriwal joined them an hour later to protest against the demolition of their houses in Shaheen Bagh near Okhla,’ said a police official.

The protesters continued their demonstration outside the Chief Minister’s residence and police detained them around 12.30 pm, as they refused to leave the place.

‘Kejriwal, Sisodia and Vishwas were among the people who were detained,’ a senior police official said.

A large number of police personnel from Parliament Street police station were deployed at the spot to prevent any untoward incident. Police had barricaded the road from Janpath side, which has the entry gate to Sheila Dikshit’s residence.

Protesters were shouting slogans against the government action.

‘The land where these people are living is their land. They have documents for it. But it’s unauthorised, because you have to get a map passed by the government,’ Kejriwal said.

‘On 4 October 2010, Sonia Gandhi had announced that 1,600 colonies would be regularised. This colony in south Delhi is also one of them. Despite that, 500 houses were demolished,’ he added.

‘We were asking for Dikshit’s time but she did not give us any appointment. We are not here for a clash with the government but a sit-in protest,” he said.

Among the supporters of AAP, people whose properties were demolished were also present during the protest. ‘Around 500 families have been displaced in demolition drive,’ said an AAP member.

Delhi Police took the protesters to Parliament Street police station and kept them there for a few hours.  Later they were released.

According to a Delhi government official, the demolition drive was carried out on the orders of Delhi High Court to remove illegal structures erected on Delhi Development Authority land.
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