Alka Lamba was attacked with a stone on the day of the incident
A Delhi court discharged AAP MLA Alka Lamba in a 2015 case of causing mischief and assault to deter a public servant to discharge their duties. The court said that the alleged offences were not “serious in nature, or against society, public and neither is any socio-economic offence”. “It is a not a case where somebody was injured or a victim… Accused is a public representative and seems to be there (Hanuman Mandir near Kashmere Gate) for a good cause,” ACMM Samar Vishal said.
As per court records, the FIR was registered on a complaint by one Santosh Kumar, who was then a salesman at a shop in Hanuman Mandir. He alleged that on August 9, 2015, Lamba came to the shop and started provoking them against the shopkeepers. Later, she pushed the policeman, entered the shop and threw his cash bill. She allegedly “intimidated” other shopkeepers that she would get their shops sealed.
However, her counsel, Mohammad Irshad, stated that she had gone to Hanuman Mandir after she received various complaints on the menace of drug addicts, due to which the area was prone to crime against women. “… At 6.45 am… she was attacked with a stone… She gave a complaint to police after which a non-cognizable report was registered, but no further action was taken,” Irshad submitted. But an FIR was registered against her for “political reasons”, he argued.
The court said the prosecution has placed on record two sets of evidence — CCTV footage which does not show any assault, and statements of policemen under Section 161 CrPC stating otherwise: “These compel the court to take different views, one against and the other in favour… (the) footage, which although is better evidence that ocular, are even treated at par with statements of police witnesses, then definitely there exists an equally potential evidence in her favour due to which two equal views are possible. I think she deserves the benefit of evidence in her favour.”