A city court has acquitted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and nine other MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party in connection to the former Delhi Chief Secretary assault case in 2018.
Overall, 13 people were accused. 11 of the 13 accused have got the clean chit from the special court. However, the court has ordered framing of charges against two MLAs — Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal.
Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia held a press conference and said, “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.”
“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,” he further added.
Accused in Chief Secy Manhandling Case
Delhi police have booked Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania under relevant Sections of Indian Penal Code.
Charges Framed
- Voluntarily causing hurt
- Obstructing a public servant to deter him/her from doing duty
- Wrongful confinement
- Assault
- Insult with intent to provoke breach of peace
- Criminal intimidation
- Criminal conspiracy
- Punishment of abetment
- Unlawful assembly
Anshu Prakash Manhandling Case
A 1986-batch IAS official and former Delhi Chief Secretary, Anshu Prakash was allegedly manhandled by members of Delhi Legislative Assembly at the CM residence on February 19, 2018.
A large number of bureaucrats protested against the Delhi government seeking strict action against the culprits. It was submitted that then Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash met Delhi CM and MLAs to have a discussion why a large number of families were not getting ration due to the glitches in the implementation of Aadhaar.
Anshu Prakash Accused of Professional Misconduct
Denying all the allegations, AAP spokesperson and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj accused Anshu Prakash of misbehaving with the MLAs. “The chief secretary is doing this at the behest of the Centre…In a meeting at CM house, the CS told the MLAs that he is not answerable to the elected MLAs, and that he is only answerable to the L-G. The allegations of physical manhandling are completely baseless and bizarre,”Bhardwaj said.
“The CS said he is not answerable to us…He got angry and had stormed out… MLAs went after him to get him back. He still went out. If there was a problem, he should have dialled 100. Why is he acting this way afterwards? It is shameful,” MLA Amanatullah Khan.
“Midnight conspiracy to defame the Delhi Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and other MLAs in a false and laughable case,” AAP claimed.
