Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia will be charged by the police with criminal conspiracy over the alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash in February. Sources say that the charge sheet will be filed soon in the case.
On February 19, Chief Secretary of Delhi Anshu Prakash was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs at the chief minister’s residence at night. He alleged that when he was attacked, Kejriwal was present when he was manhandled. Prakash also told the police that two legislators had beaten him and pointed towards the chief minister in his statement.
Anshu Prakash has alleged that in Mr Kejriwal’s presence, he was attacked by the lawmakers of AAP. He complained to the police that he was beaten by two legislators as part of a conspiracy between everyone present in the room, a statement seen to point at the Chief Minister.
Though Kejriwal was not arrested or named an accused in the first information report (FIR), police had questioned him twice.
In fact, a week after the alleged assault, Prakash had written to Kejriwal, asking him to ensure his safety and that of his officers during the annual budget meeting. “The Delhi Government employees are working with full vigor and want that normal functioning of the Government should not suffer. Since finalizing dates of Budget Session and passing of the Budget are important for the functioning of the Government, I, along with my concerned colleague officers, will be attending the said meeting,” Prakash wrote in his letter
The Aam Aadmi Party has denied the chief secretary’s allegations and called the case ‘politically motivated’. The incident deepened the divide between the ministers of the Delhi government and the bureaucrats who refused to attend meetings called by the ministers citing a threat to their life.
Kejriwal along with his three ministers had held a sit-in protest at lieutenant governor Anil Baijal’s office and refused to leave the L-G office premises until Baijal intervened and called off the strike by the bureaucrats.