Kejriwal, Sisodia charged with assault on top Delhi bureaucrat, AAP hits back

Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday termed the charges of criminal conspiracy slapped on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia for the alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash by party legislators in their presence a “conspiracy” and said the court would dismiss them.

“In 19 out of 22 cases filed against AAP legislators, they have been honourably acquitted and the court has pulled up the Delhi police,” party spokesman Raghav Chadha said at a press conference in New Delhi.

“Despite this, the chief secretary and the lieutenant governor were hatching a conspiracy against Arvind Kejriwal and it is being coordinated from the PMO,” he said.

Kejriwal and Sisodia were charged with planning the conspiracy to assault Prakash, Delhi government’s top civil servant, by calling him to the chief minister’s residence for a late night meeting on February 19.

Eleven AAP MLAs were charged with assault, according to a police report filed before Samar Vishal, additional chief metropolitan magistrate. The legislators are Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar, and Dinesh Mohania.

Sources told Hindustan Times the statements of V K Jain, Kejriwal’s former advisor, will be crucial evidence in the case. Jain, who had asked Prakash to attend the meeting and quit as Kejriwal’s advisor three weeks later, has reportedly confirmed Jarwal and Khan assaulted Prakash. Jain had asked

The court will consider the police chargesheet on August 25.

First Published: Aug 13, 2018 20:22 IST