Vandalism outside CM house: 'Chargesheet filed against 30'

New Delhi: Delhi Police on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it has filed the chargesheet against 30 people in the case concerning the incident of vandalism outside the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier this year.

The statement was made before a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad on a PIL by AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj seeking the constitution of an SIT to probe the March 30 attack during a protest against Kejriwal's remarks on 'The Kashmir Files', a film on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits.

Advocate Sanjay Lao, appearing for the Delhi Police, furnished to the court the agency's status report in a sealed cover and informed that two gates would be put on both ends of the road leading to the CM's residence.

Sixty per cent of work is complete and the same would conclude in a few days, he added.

Earlier, the court had directed the Delhi Police to file a further status report giving details of the progress of its investigation into the FIR registered after the incident.

The court listed the plea for further hearing on August 8 with a clear understanding that it would be deciding the matter on that day.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the petitioner, urged the court to defer the hearing and grant time to the CM secretariat to respond to an earlier status report filed by the Delhi Police concerning the security arrangement at the CM residence, which was supplied to it pursuant to an order passed by the court in May.

Singhvi told the court that it was the petitioner's stand in his plea that when the Delhi Police was responsible for the security lapse, it cannot be permitted to now carry out an investigation into the same.

Scores of protesters belonging to the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, had allegedly breached the barricades to reach the entrance of the chief minister's residence and destroyed public property in the presence of police.

On March 30, 2022, several BJP goons, in the garb of a protest, launched an attack on the official residence of the Delhi CM. Videos and photographs show that these goons casually walked through the security cordon (maintained by Delhi Police), kicked and broke the boom barrier, broke the CCTVs cameras with lathis, threw paint on the gate of the residence, and almost climbed over the gate, while Delhi Police personnel simply looked on, doing little to stop the protestors, the plea has alleged.