AAP jitters: Modi has never been comfortable with Kejriwal ever since AAP swept Delhi. AAP legislators Somnath Bharti and Amanatullah Khan were granted bail by two different courts in Delhi, sparking another attack by Delhi's ruling party on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Another AAP member against whom a FIR has been lodged is Swati Maliwal, chief of the Delhi Commission for Women, who has claimed that a false FIR was lodged against her as she was investigating prostitution on GB Road and claims that the sex racket had the protection of a Union minister and a senior politician.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed surprise that at a time when the Prime Minister should be focussing on the Uri terror attack, his machinery was still targeting the AAP.
“I am amazed at a time when PM should be working on Uri, his machinery is working overtime to get AAP MLAs arrested or me implicated in false cases,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader tweeted, referring to the terror attack on an army camp in Uri in Kashmir that left 18 soldiers dead.
Kejriwal’s reaction came a day after he alleged that the police had named him in a FIR related to alleged illegalities in the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and shortly after courts in Delhi gave bail to two AAP MLAs.
Bharti was granted bail on a personal security bond of Rs 30,000, only hours after his arrest for allegedly damaging a fence at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and misbehaving with its security guards.
Bharti was taken into custody from his residence earlier in the day. The former Delhi law minister has denied the allegations.
Police registered a FIR against Bharti and his supporters on September 11 on charges of rioting with deadly weapons, obstructing public servants as well as assaulting or using criminal force against public servants following a complaint from the AIIMS Chief Security Officer R.S. Rawat.
Rawat alleged that Bharti provoked a mob to damage the fence at AIIMS at around 9.45 a.m. on September 9 and allowed unauthorised persons with JCB machines to access the hospital premises and misbehaved with security personnel.
The complaint said six security personnel were injured when they tried to intervene.
Bharti’s counsel Madan Lal and Vijay Aggarwal told the court that the fence was demolished by the PWD, not by him. They said the AAP leader was falsely implicated in the case due to political vendetta.
Reacting to Bharti’s arrest, AAP leader Dilip Pandey said the PWD had started demolishing a drain at Gautam Nagar, adjoining the AIIMS complex, for the benefit of its residents.
“Being the legislator of the constituency, Bharti was present at the site along with residents and police personnel. He was arrested on spurious charges. This is sad,” Pandey told the media.
“We want to tell Modiji that AAP leaders and MLAs do not fear getting arrested. Hang us, if you (Modi) want, for doing public welfare work,” the AAP leader said
Another AAP legislator, Amanatullah Khan, was also granted bail by another court. He was arrested a day earlier for allegedly sexually harassing a relative.
Khan, who represents Okhla constituency in south Delhi, was arrested on Wednesday after being called for questioning. He was sent to a day’s judicial custody by the court.
Following the woman’s complaint, a FIR was lodged against the AAP legislator at the Jamia Nagar police station on September 10.
The complainant accused Khan of pressurising her to establish physical relations. Khan has denied the charge, saying he has not met the woman for years.
The Kejriwal and Modi governments have been at loggerheads ever since the AAP swept to power in the national capital in February 2015.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Thursday said a prostitution racket at GB Road in the national capital’s red light area was operating under the protection of a central minister and a senior leader of a national political party.
Asked to name the two, Maliwal told reporters that the names will be disclosed “very soon”.
Maliwal’s statement comes in the wake of registration of a case against her by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government on Monday night over a complaint of irregular recruitments made in the panel.
Maliwal, an Aam Aadmi Party leader, said she had been conducting raids at various establishments on the GB Road for the last few days.
“I had been trying to understand how this prostitution business worth thousands of crores of rupees is being run openly at a distance of barely three km from Parliament. During our investigations, we have got strong indications that this business is being run under the protection of a central minister and a senior politician from Delhi of a prominent national party,” she said.
“I pray to God that these indications turn out to be false. But it does raise some questions,” she said.
“How can such a racket run at a distance of three km from Parliament? Why is MCD not taking any action to raze illegal structures despite repeated complaints? It’s because this is an organised racket, and has earnings of over Rs 5 crore per night,” she said.
Maliwal claimed she is even being threatened to not pursue the GB Road issue or face “dire consequences”.
“While our investigation was going on and we had just got clues on the involvement of some prominent persons, suddenly a ‘false’ FIR was filed against me. And now I have been getting messages that these leaders will get me arrested and will have me removed from the DCW through the Lieutenant Governor’s intervention,” the AAP leader said.
Maliwal said if she continues to remain at the helm of the DCW, she will put an end to the prostitution racket run from GB Road.
On Monday night, a case was filed against Maliwal by the ACB on the complaint of Congress leader Barkha Singh Shukla, a former head of the DCW.
The DCW chief was booked under Sections 13 (Criminal misconduct by a public servant) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Maliwal said it’s a conspiracy by a few people who don’t like “questions being asked by us”. (IANS)