NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on Tuesday alleged that the assault on him at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence was "premeditated" and a "conspiracy" of all those who were present at a meeting there Monday night.
In his complaint to DCP (North) , Prakash alleged that Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs were present at the meeting at Kejriwal's residence, where they threatened to "implicate" him in false cases if the issue of releasing TV advertisements about the AAP government's achievements was not resolved. Prakash also claimed he was roughed up.
However, AAP denied the allegation, saying that Prakash was making false accusations at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre.
After the incident, Prakash met Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and apprised him of the incident.
Addressing reporters on Tuesday, Prakash said that around 8.45 pm on Monday, the advisor to the Chief Minister informed him that he had to reach the CM's residence at midnight to discuss the issue of releasing some TV advertisements, relating to the completion of three years the AAP government.
"The advisor had called me around 11.30 pm (Monday) to confirm if I had left for the meeting. I left my residence in my official car and reached the CM's residence at midnight. I was taken to the front room where the Chief Minister, the Deputy CM and 11 MLAs were present," he said.
Prakash noted that Kejriwal directed him to answer the MLAs and explain reasons for the delay in release of the TV campaign.
"I explained to them that officers were bound by guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. The MLAs started shouting at me and abused me while blaming me and the bureaucracy for not doing enough publicity for the government," Prakash said.
One of the MLAs, Prakash alleged, threatened him, saying that he (Prakash) would be confined to the room for the entire night if he did not agree to release the TV campaign.
The top Delhi bureaucrat said in his police complaint that he was also told he would be implicated in "false cases including under the SC/ST Act".
"Khan and the other MLA on my left side whom I can identify, without any provocation from my side, started hitting and assaulting me and hit several blows with fists on my head and temple," he said.
However, AAP leader Atishi Marlena presented a different picture of what transpired on Monday night.
"About 2.5 lakh families were deprived of rations last month due to faulty implementation of Aadhaar. MLAs were under tremendous pressure from the public. There was a meeting of MLAs at the CM's residence. The Chief Secretary refused to answer questions saying that he was answerable only to the LG and not to MLAs and CM.
"He even used bad language against some MLAs and left without answering any questions. Moreover, it is false information that the meeting and the argument were about TV ads. The entire discussion was on how a large number of families were not getting ration," she said.