NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police team today descended on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence and seized a hard disk of the CCTV camera system installed there in connection with an alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by AAP MLAs.
Police claimed that its action came after its request for CCTV footage from the chief minister's residence was not met.
Several policemen today went to Kejriwal's official residence in the Civil Lines area where Prakash was allegedly assaulted in the presence of the chief minister on the intervening night of February 19-20.
Police believes that the hard disk of the CCTV surveillance system installed at Kejriwal's residence can provide clinching evidence regarding the time of presence of the accused AAP MLAs and the Chief Secretary, who was allegedly assaulted by them.
A total of 21 CCTV cameras and a hard disk were examined by the police.
The hard disk has been seized and any possibility of "tampering" with the system could be ascertained only through forensic examination, said Additional DCP (North) Harendra Singh.
Fourteen CCTV cameras were running while seven were not working. Also, there was a time lag of 40-43 minutes with respect to the time of the alleged incident, said the police official.
The timing of presence of the Chief Secretary at the Chief Minister's residence is important because he claimed that he was called at midnight and assaulted -- an account which the AAP has contested, saying that he reached there at 11:25 PM.
The time lag of the CCTV cameras corroborates that the complainant was at CM's residence at midnight (12.05 AM) and not at 11.25 AM as was the plea of AAP in court, police said.
If the time lag of 40 minutes is added to 11.25 AM it will match the time the chief secretary claims to have reached Kejriwal's residence, said a top Delhi Police official.
Singh claimed that the police team reached the chief minister's residence to examine the evidence when a request in this regard was not responded by concerned authorities.
"We had asked for the CCTV camera footage and hard disk on February 20 itself but there was no response.So, we decided to come down and examine it," he said.
Singh also said that the in-charge of maintenance at the chief minister's residence had been intimated about the police visit.
There was no CCTV camera in the room where the alleged incident happened during the meeting, and no footage was obtained, he said.
"We believe the incident occurred between midnight of February 19 and 12.15 AM of February 20.
" Singh did not deny the possibility of questioning Chief Minister Kejriwal and the MLAs who were present during the meeting where Prakash was allegedly assaulted by party legislator Amanatullah Khan and others.
"It is difficult to say so now.We will work scientifically," Singh said.
The police also questioned the maintenance staff of the electronic surveillance system installed at the chief minister's residence.
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