NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday issued a notice to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and nine others in an assault case filed by former chief secretary Anshu Prakash. The alleged assault had taken place at Kejriwal’s residence in February 2018 when the then chief secretary was called there for a meeting related to the release of advertisements.
A special judge at the Rouse Avenue Court was hearing a revision petition filed by Prakash after a court discharged Kejriwal and others in the case. The matter will be further heard on November 23. Discharging Kejriwal and others in August, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta had said that the CM’s conduct was “not in consonance with the allegations levelled against him.”
He noted that the CM had asked Aam Aadmi Party MLAs — Amantullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal — to refrain from attacking Prakash and had even permitted him to leave the meeting The other MLAs discharged were Rajesh Rishi, Nitin Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Ajay Dutt, Sanjeev Jha, Rituraj Govind, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, and Dinesh Mohania.
The controversy erupted in 2018 when the then chief secretary alleged that the Delhi CM and the AAP MLAs physically assaulted him at a meeting at the CM’s residence on the evening of February 19. Prakash had alleged that he was called for a midnight meeting to discuss the release of the party’s advertisements related to the government completing three years in Delhi where he was manhandled.
He later identified the assaulters as Khan and Jarwal. Based on Prakash’s complaint, the Delhi Police had filed a case under nine IPC sections, including 186 (obstructing a public servant from performing the duty), 353 (assaulting a public servant) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt).Khan and Jarwal were sent to 14-day judicial custody.