Delhi Chief Secretary Assault Case: Court discharges Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, nine others

A Delhi court on Wednesday discharged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and nine other AAP MLAs in a case related to the alleged assault on the then chief secretary Anshu Prakash in 2018.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta, however, ordered framing of charges against two AAP MLAs — Amantullah and Prakash Jarwal — in the case.

"The court has said that all allegations were baseless and false. We were saying from the first day these allegations are false. There was a conspiracy against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal..." Sisodia told reporters while addressing a press conference soon after the charges were dismissed as per NDTV.

"The Delhi Police hatched this conspiracy at the behest of PM Modi and BJP. A false case was made (but) today the court refused to frame charges. Today is the day of 'Satyamev Jayate' (truth always wins)... today the trust in the judiciary has increased even more," Sisodia claimed.

The criminal case relates to the alleged assault on Prakash during a meeting at Kejriwal's official residence on 19 February, 2018. A police officer who had interacted with the chief secretary following the incident had said that Prakash had been caught between two MLAs who allegedly heckled him with elbows before raining punches on his face. “Two punches had landed on his forehead,” said the officer.

The Delhi Police had on 18 May of the same year questioned Kejriwal for over three hours in relation to the case and filed its charge sheet before the court on 13 August.

Later, Kejriwal, Sisodia, and the other AAP MLAs, including, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania, were granted bail in October 2018. Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal were granted bail earlier in the year by the high court.

The alleged assault had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats.

With inputs from PTI