NEW DELHI: Standing firmly behind their leaders,
five Delhi
ministers on Monday issued a
joint statement, alleging that the BJP government at the
Centre was
conspiring through a
“hand-picked” bureaucrat to
implicate chief minister Arvind
Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish
Sisodia in a false case.
The statement came after Delhi Police filed a chargesheet against Kejriwal, Sisodia and 11 AAP lawmakers for allegedly assaulting chief secretary
Anshu Prakash at the CM’s residence on February 20. The five ministers—Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Imran Hussain—said the case was yet another example of the BJP government’s “unprecedented witch-hunt” against a government elected with highest-ever mandate in India’s electoral history.
“Ever since PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah suffered the worst-ever electoral humiliation of their political careers in February 2015, they have not forgiven the elected government of Delhi and have relentlessly unleashed all their agencies with full might to crush the Delhi government to fulfil their arrogant desire of seeking complete revenge,” the statement read.
The ministers said the Modi government booked several MLAs since February 2015 but the fast-track courts in the past five months discharged them in 19 of the 22 cases.
“(This) bogus chargesheet will (also) be torn to shreds when it will be put to legal scrutiny. It will be contested with all legal strength to expose the real face of the Modi government and its puppet Delhi Police before the people of this country,” the statement read.
The ministers claimed BJP was working under a larger plan to destabilise the AAP government in Delhi. They said snatching the elected government’s powers through an illegal notification, CBI raids, terrorising officers through threats of transfers and ruining careers, and keeping 400 files locked in the LG house for four months to find anything to implicate the CM and ministers in false cases were all part of the conspiracy.
“The entire conspiracy to name the chief minister and deputy CM in a fake and laughable criminal case is the result of the extreme frustration of the Modi government, which has so far miserably failed in all its attempts to dislodge the Delhi government,” the statement read.
The ministers said the Modi government was misusing Delhi Police as a “political tool” to settle scores with AAP, but the security agency will “suffer a major humiliation” in the court of law where its “false and imaginary case” will be put to legal scrutiny.
“By ordering Delhi Police to stoop to such low levels where its officers spent days and nights for almost six months together to implicate the CM and deputy CM in a totally false case, the Modi government has shamelessly played with the credibility of this force, which has the all-important responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of the residents of Delhi,” the statement further read.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said the allegations levelled by the chief secretary were a “bundle of contradictory, false, misleading and defamatory statements and unnatural conduct”.
“The chief secretary conveniently walked out of the CM residence after his claim of having been beaten up by 11 men. Instead of filing a police complaint immediately, he went to the LG house, hatched a conspiracy and then slept. The next day, he held a series of meetings with IAS and other officers’ associations and worked on the plan to paralyse the elected government,” Bhardwaj alleged.
He also alleged that the doctors gave a false medical certificate to Prakash that he had swelling behind both his ears, almost 24 hours after he consulted them for medical evidence.
Arvind Kejriwal (File photo)
