The man at the centre: Delhi Chief Secretary. The electronic media faithful to the ruling dispensation at the Centre has always found Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to be its red rag. And so they went to town over the alleged assault of Delhi’s Chief secretary at the CM residence on Monday night. Nobody was even interested to allow AAP its version of events. But two AAP MLAs who were accused by the bureaucrat of having assaulted him were in judicial custody on Wednesday.
A Delhi court on Wednesday sent two Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, who allegedly assaulted Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, in judicial custody till Thursday.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shefali Barnala Tandon refused a Delhi Police plea for police custody of MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal and said their bail pleas will be taken up on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Chief Secretary alleged that he was beaten up by Khan and another MLA in the presence of Arvind Kejriwal at the Chief Minister’s residence here on Monday night, where he had been called for a meeting.
While Jarwal was arrested on Tuesday night, Khan surrendered at a police station here on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s adviser V.K. Jain was questioned by police at the Civil Lines police station and let off.
The alleged assault on the top bureaucrat triggered a political storm, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding Kejriwal’s resignation and the Congress seeking his apology.
The AAP hit back by accusing the Chief Secretary of making false allegations and said he was working at the “behest of the BJP”.
The Home Ministry sought a report from Lt Governor Anil Baijal as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he was “deeply pained” by the development. The L-G has since submitted a report on the issue to the Home Ministry.
A body representing the bureaucrats said they will not meet or talk over phone with the Chief Minister or his Ministers or party MLAs till Kejriwal apologised and took action.
On Tuesday afternoon, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain was manhandled inside the Delhi Secretariat by a crowd protesting against the alleged assault.
Hussain’s Assistant Personal Secretary was beaten up, according to multiple video clips from the Secretariat.
On Wednesday, Hussain met Lt Governor Anil Baijal, after which informed sources said that Baijal assured he would talk to Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik about the issue.
A separate FIR has been registered based on Hussain’s complaint.
Earlier on Wednesday, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Harendra Kumar Singh said that police were trying to track down Khan and they had been to the Okhla legislator’s residence late on Tuesday night, but he was not present.
On Tuesday night, the second AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal was arrested by the police in connection with the alleged assault and, on Wednesday morning, Chief Minister Kejriwal’s advisor V.K. Jain was questioned at the Civil Lines Police station in connection with the issue.
The Chief Minister’s advisor was present at the time of the assault, according to Prakash’s police complaint.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal submitted a report to the Home Ministry on the alleged assault.
“The Ministry has received the L-G’s report. The criminal aspect of the matter will be taken care of by Delhi Police while the Ministry will look into the administrative issues involved, if the Chief Secretary was assaulted,” a Home Ministry official said.
Calling the alleged assault on a Delhi bureaucrat a “conspiracy”, the AAP on Wednesday said that its two MLAs — Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan — were arrested in the case without any inquiry because they belonged to the minority communities of Dalits and Muslims.
Based on the allegation of assault made by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, the two were arrested without being given a chance to state their version, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh told the media.
“We have the video footage of what happened at Delhi Secretariat yesterday (Tuesday) when our Minister and his Personal Secretary were attacked by a mob that was incited by the BJP but nothing has been done about it.
“Words of the Chief Secretary are being treated as gospel truth,” he said, adding the top bureaucrat was making “false” allegations.
Sanjay Singh alleged that provocative speeches were given outside the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday that led to the commotion and beating up of Minister Imran Hussain and his Personal Secretary Himanshu Singh.
He said under the BJP’s rule in various states, Dalits and Muslims were victims of communal violence.
The Chief Secretary, who has alleged that AAP MLAs assaulted him in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal late on Monday, would have called the police immediately after the incident if he was actually assaulted, the AAP leader said.
“Anybody physically assaulted by someone would immediately call the police. Why didn’t the Chief Secretary do so? The next morning he started making these allegations against our MLAs.
On Monday, an emergency meeting was convened to address the issue of 250,000 families who were deprived of food rations due to faulty implementation of Aadhaar.
“I know the conversation that was happening at CM’s residence on the issue of people not getting ration turned into an argument… there was a heated argument but no physical attacks were made.”
Asking why the Chief Secretary’s injury report wasn’t prepared by a doctor on the same day, Sanjay Singh said: “The medico-legal certificate is coming today when the incident happened three days back.”
Stressing that this was a BJP-led Central government’s conspiracy against the AAP, Sanjay Singh said: “To be associated with AAP is considered to be a crime by the Centre.
“AAP is always the soft target. The government now wishes to take the attention away from Nirav Modi, (Vikram) Kothari, Jatin Mehta and that is why this thing was brought up.”
The Congress called the alleged assault a “planned strategy” of the ruling party and demanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologise to the bureaucrat.
“The case of assault on Chief Secretary is a very shameful act and the situation of administrative paralysis is very dangerous for the national capital,” Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken told the media after meeting Lt Governor Anil Baijal along with three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
“We have met the LG and demanded security to the officials so that they can work with dignity and there is no political pressure on them.”
He alleged the Kejriwal government has “failed on all fronts in the last three years. And thus it was a fully planned strategy of the AAP to divert the attention of people from their failures”.
The Congress leader’s remarks come in the wake of the assault on Prakash late on Monday.
Maken also said that “under Dikshit government there were a number of times when MLAs and officials differed on several issues”.
“But she has directed all the MLAs to maintain the dignity of the bureaucrats. And for 15 years, we worked with all these officials and were able to win six elections.
“When we can get the work done from these officials with dignity, why cannot the Kejriwal government?” Maken asked.
He said that even the during the first six years in office in Delhi between 1998 and 2004, when the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power at Centre, the Congress too did not get officials as per their requests.
“But we worked with them. It happened because we maintained the dignity of the officials and worked for the people.
“We demand that Kejriwal apologise to officials; also, strict action should be taken against the accused. We also demand that the LG ensure the safety of officials and Kejriwal should not look for reasons for not working,” he added. (IANS)