AAP termed the action “police raj” cries foul as police visits Kejriwal’s house.
NEW DELHI :Delhi Police on Friday visited Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, to look for evidence in connection with an alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash there, by two AAP legislators just days back.Officials in the Chief Minister’s Office said that about 60 police personnel were inside the Civil Lines residence of Mr. Kejriwal.
CM’s home turned into a “scene of crime” today as a large number of policemen spent over two hours searching and questioning the staff and took away boxes full of hardware from CCTV cameras, in the unprecedented fallout of an alleged assault on the city’s top bureaucrat earlier this week.
Mr Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the police visit was only to “humiliate and insult” the chief minister.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Harendra Kumar Singh told that the “raid” was underway and police would be looking for CCT Police spokesperson Deependra Pathak said the action was a part of the investigation into the alleged incident.
The Aam Aadmi Party termed the action “police raj” and said there was no “intimation” prior to the search. Kejriwal told reporters outside his residence that he was “happy that the investigation is taking place” but said they probe agencies should also garner “courage to question (BJP chief) Amit Shah” in the Justice Loya death case.
“A lot of police has been sent to my house. Investigation is going on in my house. It is a good thing,” Kejriwal later said in a tweet.This was the first time the chief minister has responded to the allegations on the assault.
Kejriwal also said in another tweet that his council of ministers has sought an appointment with the Lt. Governor Anil Baijal later in the day. The Delhi Police is under the jurisdiction of Baijal.
Earlier this week the Delhi chief secretary had alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal in the presence of the chief minister at the latter’s residence on Monday night. He said the incident took place when he was summoned to attend an emergency meeting at Kejriwal’s home.
On Thursday, the chief minister’s adviser V.K. Jain told police that he saw Khan and Jarwal “physically assault” the chief secretary, according to Jain’s statement recorded by the Delhi Police.
Khan and Jarwal were sent to judicial custody for 14 days by a Delhi court.
The IAS Association is heading the protest. Delhi government employees have decided to observe a five-minute silence outside their respective offices every day till steps were taken to “ensure safety and dignity” of government staff in the city.
Bureaucrats had also taken a decision that they would not meet or talk over phone to the chief minister, his ministers or MLAs till Kejriwal accepts and apologises for the alleged assault and takes action.
Later, ADCP Harendra Singh said of the total 21 cameras at Mr. Kejriwal’s residence, seven didn’t record any footage. Also, the recordings were running 40 minutes and 42 seconds behind. The Delhi Police said the Forensic Science Laboratory will investigate when did the seven cameras stopped recording footages.The police say they went to the chief minister’s house after their request for CCTV footage was ignored.
“We have visited the scene of crime and seized the hard discs of 21 cameras. Only 14 are working and all of them are running 40-42 minutes late,” said a police officer, adding that whether they had been tampered with would be examined by experts. There were no CCTVs in the room where the assault allegedly took place.
Anshu Prakash has alleged that he was slapped and beaten by the lawmakers in Mr Kejriwal’s presence after being called for a meeting at midnight. The chief secretary says he was attacked after being asked to explain why a three-year anniversary campaign of AAP was not being released. The MLAs, Prakash Jarwal and Amantullah Khan, have since been arrested.
To the embarrassment of the ruling party, the Chief Minister’s key aide VK Jain reportedly told a court yesterday that he had seen AAP lawmakers assault Mr Prakash.
Mr Jain, a retired bureaucrat, said he had gone to the washroom during the meeting and when he returned, he saw two lawmakers hitting the Chief Secretary. He even claimed that the CM and his deputy Manish Sisodia watched silently. The statement, recorded before a magistrate, will be admissible as court evidence.
The chief secretary hadn’t specified Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia’s role in his police complaint but implied that the two ministers were among those who had engineered the assault.(With Agency Inputs ).
