New Delhi: Amid high drama outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence on Tuesday, where heavy police deployment along with barricades was seen, the Aam Aadmi Party alleged that the Delhi CM had been placed under house arrest to prevent him from joining the farmers at the borders to show his support for the Bharat Bandh.
While the Delhi Police has flat out denied any such claims of having detained the Chief Minister of Delhi, throughout the day, several AAP leaders, including Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Raghav Chadha, Somnath Bharti and others stood outside the residence claiming police were not allowing them inside.
Every time an AAP leader said they wanted to meet the CM at his home, a senior officer from the Delhi Police would engage with them to say that they can individually be taken inside but not with all volunteers at a time, to which the leaders would insist all party workers be let inside.
However, by evening, the police had given in to the party workers' demands and allowed Dy CM Sisodia and other leaders inside the CM's house. With his colleagues inside the residence, the CM said he had planned to visit protesting farmers at the border but "I think they came to know about my plan and they (police) did not let me go".
"If I wasn't stopped, I would have gone and supported farmers in their Bharat Bandh call. I am glad Bharat Bandh was successful. I prayed for protesting farmers while sitting inside," the CM said, addressing party workers.
Curiously, the Aam Aadmi Party in a statement claimed that the CM was prevented from leaving the residence since he came back from his visit to the Singhu border protest site. However, in CCTV footage leaked soon after, he can be seen entering the lobby of a building with his security around 9:25 pm on Monday night.
The CM, on Tuesday, said the Centre had been trying to stop him from going out to support the farmers for the last two days becuase he had stopped them from imprisoning protesters in stadiums here.
"I suddenly couldn't help but recall Anna Andolan, and how we were put in these big stadiums which were converted into jails. They put us in jails and tried to weaken the movement. In the same way, I knew that they would put the farmers into jails to weaken their movement. There was a lot of pressure on us, we received calls from various sources. But we decided to stand in support of the farmers," he said.
But the police consistently maintained that....
Despite this, officials in the Chief Minister's office claimed that neither he nor was his staff allowed to leave or enter the residence throughout Tuesday.
"The CM returned from an event yesterday (Monday) and he was not allowed to leave at night after. All of Tuesday none of the staff members or workers could leave or enter the CM residence including the CM and his family," the official told Millennium Post on account of anonymity.
The CM went on to congratulate the farmers for a successful Bharat Bandh and said, "The AAP volunteers and the people of Delhi also supported the movement, and I want to congratulate the farmers and the people of the country for this. I am happy the entire nation collectively came in support of the movement of the farmers — it represented unity."
When the AAP volunteers talked to the Delhi police regarding the house arrest the Delhi Police openly said that the order of Home Minister Amit Shah is that till the time Bharat Bandh is not over the Delhi Chief Minister will not be allowed to come out, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said.
He also said that on the other hand the Delhi police has allowed the BJP leaders to hold dharna in front of the CM residence.
Meanwhile, the Delhi BJP hit out at the CM, accusing him of doing "drama" over his alleged house arrest to avoid meeting mayors and members of the BJP-ruled municipal corporations staging an indefinite dharna outside his residence.
But the police consistently maintained that the "Chief Minister is being allowed to move out of his residence for all engagements."
In a press conference, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Satish Golcha said, "It has been claimed in certain sections of the social media that there is some restriction on the movement of the Chief Minister of Delhi. I would like to clarify on this behalf that these claims are totally baseless and unfounded and there has been no restriction whatsoever."
He further told reporters that "there is enough security in the area to maintain peace and to prevent any untoward incident" adding the police will intervene if there is an effort to "breach the peace" or "block the movement of any political leader."
Rubbishing claims of the CM's "house arrest", DCP (North) Anto Alphonse's office tweeted, "He (CM) exercises his right to free movement within the law of the land."