Narela MLA held, AAP hits back at PM Modi

In a sharp reaction to the arrest of his party MLA Sharad Chauhan on Saturday midnight, senior AAP leader Ashutosh put a question mark on ‘mental balance’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Chauhan, AAP MLA from Narela in North-west Delhi has been arrested in connection with suicide of a woman worker of his party, is the 12th legislator of AAP be arrested.

“Another AAP MLA arrested. Has Modi gone mad? Has he lost his mental balance? If Prime Minister acts with such anger and vengeance then is country safe!” said Ashotosh in tweet on Sunday. He further added that Delhi police has not taken any action against the man who had threatened to kill Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. “No action against Nikunj Sahu, despite in press conference talked about giving death threat on Twitter. Why? Because he is followed by Modi?” he added.

Ashutosh said that instead of appreciating AAP government’s “good” work in health and education sector, the Prime Minister is sending its MLAs to jail.

“Delhi govt doing great job. Yesterday 16 lacs parents of govt schools 1st time came for PTM (Parents Teachers Meeting).

Instead of appreciating he is putting in jail. Great initiatives are taken by Delhi govt in education-health instead of praising Modi is sending AAP MLA jail. Is country safe in his hands?” Ashutosh said in a series of tweets.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Sunday sent Chauhan to judicial custody. “The application moved by the Investigating Officer (IO) seeking police custody remand and judicial custody of the accused persons will also be placed before concerned court on Monday,” said the Duty Metropolitan Magistrate, Rohini Court. The advocate of the Chauhan claimed that the demand of police custody was rejected because police could not present sufficient grounds to back his claim. “Mere talking to the accused on mobile is not an even ground for arrest. The police must show grounds to seek remand,” said Pradeep Rana, advocate who represented Chauhan. Chauhan is the 12th AAP MLA to be arrested by Delhi. He has been arrested in the case of AAP volunteers Soni Mishra who committed suicide, alleging sexual harassment by local AAP leaders and failure of senior leadership to provide her justice. Her family says she was depressed since his release. In a video statement, she had accused Bhardwaj of pressuring her to “compromise” if she wanted to rise in the party. She had also alleged that Bhardwaj was being protected by local MLA Sharad Chauhan.

AAP’s Ashish Khetan alleged the PM spends his every waking moment in plotting the ‘fixing’ of all his political opponents.

He further alleged Modi appears to be concerned only with political persecution.

“He (Modi) appears wholly unfit to lead this country as the Prime Minister. Can we trust the country’s administration in the hands of a person who spends his every waking moment in plotting the fixing of all his political opponents? Is such a person psychologically and temperamentally fit to run the country?” 

“The way Narendra Modi is running his reign of vindictive politics is dangerous for the country. He is targeting his opponents in a systematic manner, be it his action against (Gujarat cadre IAS officer) Pradeep Sharma, other officers, AAP MLAs or against the AAP government in Delhi.” 

So far, seven persons have been arrested in Soni Mishra suicide case including main accused Amit Bhardwaj. On Sunday Amit Bhardwaj, Rajnikant, Mohal Lal, Sanjay and Mukhtar Singh were also produced before the court which was deferred for Monday.