A Delhi Sessions Court on Wednesday quashed the petition filed by former Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, challenging the clean chit given to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and nine other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs by a trial court in the case related to an alleged assault on him at the CM’s residence in 2018.
According to Prakash, the incident took place during a meeting at Kejriwal’s official residence on February 19, 2018. It triggered a bitter war between the bureaucracy and the Kejriwal-led Delhi government.
The bureaucrat had alleged on March 30 that Kejriwal and Sisodia were the ‘kingpins’ of a conspiracy that led to him being assaulted at the CM’s residence.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, Prakash’s Counsel, said that the trial court erred in its judgement and that the Delhi government did not allow the police to file a revision petition against the order, despite a written request by the force.
As per the Counsel, both Kejriwal and Sisodia were the kingpins of the conspiracy, in which 11 specific MLAs were called at the Chief Minister’s residence at 12 midnight.
He said the meeting was specifically kept in the drawing room of the Chief Minister, where there were no CCTV cameras and not in the designated meeting room with CCTV cameras.
As per Prakash, the MLAs were asked to be present one hour before the arrival of the Chief Secretary and that the meeting was called “without any agenda, where officers/ministers concerned with the issue were specifically not called to maintain the secrecy”.
He said they have accepted the incident of physical assault upon the Chief Secretary now, but still denying the charges of conspiracy.
As per Luthra, “The Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and other discharged MLAs are making Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal scapegoats by contending that the trial court has rightly framed the charges against the two MLAs.”
Prakash had said in his complaint that he was summoned to Kejriwal’s residence at midnight to discuss the difficulty in releasing advertisements to mark the AAP’s three years in power.
The assault happened in the presence of the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and 11 other MLAs, with the intention to criminally intimidate and deter him from discharging his lawful duty, he added.
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