The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday (February 21), refused to entertain a plea seeking immediate judicial intervention into the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by a Aam Aadmi Party legislators during a meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on Monday night.
Advocate KS Wahi had moved the Delhi High Court on Wednesday morning seeking an urgent hearing of his plea seeking judicial intervention in the matter. In his petition, Wahi submitted that people of Delhi would suffer if “elected (MLAs) and selected (bureaucrats)” fight among themselves. “Both the representatives have to work in accordance with the rules made for Delhi with regard to its functioning and administration,” Wahi had submitted.
The petition came up for hearing before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar. However, the bench noted that the Delhi police was already looking into the incident and that it would wait for the final outcome of the probe before deciding whether or not it should step in to resolve the impasse between the national capital’s Executive and bureaucracy which has erupted ever since Prakash complained to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal about being heckled and assaulted by AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan.
“They (police) will take action in accordance with law. We will wait for the final outcome,” the bench said, adding that both sides (AAP legislators and the Chief Secretary) have a different story according to media reports.
Wahi urged the court for intervention, saying the alleged assault was premeditated and a “conspiracy” of all present (at the residence of Kejriwal on the night of the alleged incident) with the motive to deter the bureaucrat from discharging his lawful duty.
The Delhi Police had, on Tuesday, lodged an FIR on a complaint by the chief secretary under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation, causing hurt, criminal conspiracy, insult and obstructing a public servant from discharging his duty. AAP minister Imran Hussain and legislators Prakash Jarwal and Anil Dutt too have filed counter-FIRs against Prakash, alleging that the chief secretary had used casteist slurs against some AAP legislators at the meeting.
The chief minister’s office has remained steadfast in its denial of the chief secretary’s allegations while the AAP has dismissed the accusation as “bizarre, ludicrous and baseless”. Prakash has maintained that Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 AAP legislators were present at the meeting at the chief minister’s residence, where they threatened to “implicate” him in false cases if the issue of releasing TV advertisements about the AAP government’s achievements was not resolved.
Prakash has said he was called by Kejriwal regarding an issue related to advertisements, which were not being released, while the AAP dispensation has claimed the meeting was called to discuss complaints about distribution of rations.
–With agency inputs