LG seeks report from police on cases against AAP MLAs
20 May 2018 4:41 AM IST
NEW DELHI: A fresh tug of war has started between the Delhi government and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal over the recent acquittal of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, with Baijal seeking a report from the Commissioner of Delhi Police and its prosecutors over how cases against these MLAs are falling flat in trial courts.
So far this year, six cases involving Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot and MLAs Amanatullah Khan, Jarnail singh, Naresh Balyan and Manoj Kumar have bee filed. All of the them, however, have been acquitted by different courts.
AAP's spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed that the LG is "especially bothered as to how Amanatullah Khan got a dignified release from jail and the case against him was quashed by the court.
The Delhi Police was also reprimanded by a court for reopening a five-year-old case against Khan in 2015, after he was elected as an MLA, Bharadwaj added.
Till 2017, Delhi Police have arrested 13 MLAs of the ruling AAP on charges ranging from rape, extortion, cheating, forgery to rioting.
For most of these offences, bail is hard to come by. However, all 13 AAP lawmakers are out on bail. In fact, two have been cleared of all charges.
Barring Sandeep Kumar, who is accused of rape, and Jitender Tomar, who faces charges of forging his college and law degrees, all others got bail in their first or second court appearance or after spending a few weeks in jail.
One such case involves Narela MLA Sharad Chauhan, accused of abetting suicide of a woman AAP volunteer. "It is noteworthy that the name of applicant (Chauhan) is nowhere stated by the deceased in her last statement," the court had stated, giving bail to Chauhan.
Police also had a tough time in the case of Matiala MLA Gulab Singh, who was arrested on October 16 last year on charges of extortion from Gujarat on a day when he was to address a rally in the state.
He was immediately given bail, with the court pulling up Delh Police for waiting to arrest him on the day he was to speak at a rally and for rushing to Gujarat for reasons "best known to them". The court had said that police were "trying to spin beans beyond the basket."
Granting bail to Model Town MLA Akhilesh Tripathi in a case of sexual harassment and molestation, the court had said the complainant's statement was "self-contradictory" and cross-examination had discredited her testimony.
AAP has often accused Delhi Police, which reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs, of harassment and acting at the behest of the Centre, a charge denied by the police force.
The party called the arrests a "political conspiracy" to destabilise the Kejriwal government.
Kejriwal repeated these sentiments last week, after the Central Bureau of Investigation opened a probe against his deputy Manish Sisodia and Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain's daughter over corruption charges.
"Four-times CBI and ED raided in office of Health Minister Satyender Jain, but agency could not get any susbtantial materials from the health Minister," Kejriwal had tweeted.
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