AAP asks why its leaders detained as mayors continue protest outside CM Kejriwal's home

New Delhi: As the Delhi Police on Sunday whisked away Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Raghav Chadha, Atishi and other legislators from the ruling party here while they were protesting against an alleged corruption and misappropriation scandal of up to Rs 2,500 crore, tensions between the Delhi government and the Capital's civic bodies went up by a notch.

While the three mayors of Delhi have been protesting outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the last six days now without any interruption from law enforcement agencies and without their permission, the AAP leaders were taken away by police from outside the L-G's house and on their way to Home Minister Amit Shah's residence.

The police said they had rejected Chadha's permission request to protest in front of Shah's residence in light of the pandemic situation and hence had taken him and his supporters away before they could reach Shah's home.

Significantly, Home Minister Satyendra Jain came to the defense of his party colleagues and said, "DelhiPolice can allow BJP protesters to enter Dy CM @msisodia's house, BJP Mayors can protest outside CM @ArvindKejriwal's house but they arrest AAP MLA @AtishiAAP, @raghav_chadha, @sanjeev_aap, @MLARituraj, @KuldeepKumarAAP to demand CBI inquiry against BJP-MCD's scam?"

Minister Gopal Rai also said that the Home Minister was wrongly utilising the Delhi Police and that when the farmers want to protest or the AAP wants to protest, then the Delhi Police bring the pandemic law but when from the past several days the mayors of the BJP-ruled MCD are sitting at dharna outside the CM residence, then the police did not object.

Party leaders in a statement said that AAP will continue their protest against the alleged scam and demanded an immediate CBI probe into the matter.

MLA Atishi and Raghav Chadha slammed the BJP and Delhi Police for illegally detaining them and other MLAs and claimed that the Police acted on the instructions given by the Home Minister and L-G Anil Baijal.

"The moment I stepped out from my house the Delhi police officers took me inside their car and took me to the Rajinder Nagar Police Station. It was completely illegal detention," Chadha said.

In a minor scuffle outside the CM's residence, some people with the mayors' protest also damaged CCTV cameras being installed in the area. Police later confirmed that the matter had been resolved.