Written by: Shivam Mishra (Intern)
Edited by: Anubhav Yadav (Content Head & Developer)
On Wednesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia have been discharged by the Delhi High Court in connection with the case of assault on former Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash back in February, 2018.
Anshu Prakash, the former Chief Secretary of Delhi has alleged that during a meeting held by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at his residence on February 19, 2018, to discuss about the release of the party’s advertisement related to government completing three years in Delhi. He then, during the course of meeting was assaulted and manhandled by them along with eleven other AAP MLAs following which a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against Kejriwal, Sisodia and other 11 AAP MLAs.
Police had booked Kejriwal and 12 others in the case under IPC Sections 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) Section 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) section 342 (punishment of wrongful confinement) section 323 (causing hurt) section 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and section 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions).
Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta passed the order on Wednesday that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia has been discharged along with nine other AAP MLAs in connection with the assault of the former secretary Anshu Prakash. However, the charges were framed against AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan under section 353, 186 and other relevant section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). However, a detailed order is still anticipated.
Manish Sisodia reiterated that the claims made by Anshu Prakash was just a conspiracy that was hatched against the Chief Minister and to bring down Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and said that all the allegation made by Prakash were false and baseless.
Welcoming the order of the Delhi court Kejriwal tweeted ‘Satyameva Jayate’ and Sisodia said that “Today is the day of victory of justice and truth. This is the first and very heartbreaking incident when an elected PM has tried to disrupt the government of an elected chief minister in this manner. As we all know that the public has elected both the government, so we should not busy in any kind of conspiracy and spying on the opposite government and both the parties should apologize to the countrymen for this“.
The star witness V.K Jain, the then adviser to the Chief Minister had given the statement on which the court relied upon. The court rejected the allegations that only the specific MLAs were chosen by the Deputy CM and by the Chief Minister for the purpose of the meeting. The court termed the allegations made by Mr. Prakash as “without any merit” as they all had gathered there as per the directions of the Chief Minister and Deputy CM to attend the meeting at midnight. However, allegations levelled by the complainant against Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan were found in corroboration.