Interrogation an eyewash; OP Sharma ‘arrested’ and released within minutes

Despite having clinching evidence like TV reports and widely circulated video showing BJP MLA O P Sharma assaulting a CPI activist in the vicinity of the Patiala House Court complex on Monday, Delhi Police granted bail to the BJP MLA within minutes after ‘arresting’ him on Thursday. Presenting himself at the Tilak Marg police station around 11:30 am, the eight-hour-long interrogation was merely an eyewash.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal, O P Sharma was “charged WITH violence under Sections 160 (punishment for committing affray), 341(punishment for wrongful restraint) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.”

The official refused to comment on the severity of the punishment saying that sections on which Sharma were charged were of less criminal in nature.

After receiving summons from the Delhi Police to join the probe in the court assault case, Sharma showed up at the Tilak Marg police station with supporters staging a protest right outside the building. Waiting outside for their leader, his supporters included women and party workers who raised slogans against his arrest.

It must also be highlighted that Sharma was not named in the two FIRs registered by the Delhi Police in connection with the attack on JNU students and journalists outside the courts complex. Registering a case against unknown persons that too on Tuesday, videos circulating him thrashing CPI activist Ameeque Jamai outside the court premises were widely shown on TV channels.

Sharma, an MLA from East Delhi’s Vishwas Nagar, is one of the three BJP legislators in the Delhi Assembly. 

“In the country, people who stop others from screaming ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, if they have to go through this, it is shameful,” Sharma said after being granted bail shortly after his arrest.