The BJP and the Congress on Wednesday sought the expulsion of AAP legislators Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal from the party after a Delhi court ordered framing of charges against the two in the 2018 chief secretary assault case. They also demanded that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologise to the then chief secretary Anshu Prakash for the incident.
Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia had termed it as a “victory of justice” after they and nine other AAP MLAs were discharged in the case. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta, however, had ordered framing of charges against two AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal. The party demands that these two MLAs (Khan and Jarwal) should be immediately dismissed from the party especially now that charges have been framed against them, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta said.
The fact that all this happened at CM’s residence and in his presence also points a finger at him. Such a serious incident happening at the chief minister’s residence and in his presence against the senior-most IAS officer of Delhi is a serious thing which should not have happened in the first place, he said in a statement. He added that it was shocking that despite the court order against these two MLAs, the AAP was defending them.
It is rather shocking that deputy chief minister of Delhi, rather than dismissing them from the party, is defending and praising such elements who indulge in acts of violence against their own senior-most IAS officer. It shows the mindset of Sisodia, Gupta said in a statement. Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that CM and some of his party MLAs may have been given clean chit due to lack of sustainable evidence, but the fixing of charges against Khan and Jarwal shows that the assault took place “in CM’s presence and thus he is morally responsible for the act”.
The CM should come forward and apologise to IAS Anshu Prakash and the people of Delhi, Kapoor said in a statement. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Anil Kumar demanded the resignation of the chief minister on the matter.
CM Arvind (Kejriwal) should resign till a final decision in the case against the two AAP MLAs, against whom charges will be framed for assaulting former Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, is delivered, Kumar said in a statement. The Delhi Congress chief, in a statement, said the fact that a Delhi Court has ordered framing of charges against AAP MLAs Khan and Jarwal was proof enough that there was a strong case for the former CS to approach a higher court for appeal against the CM and the MLAs who have been let off.
Kumar also demanded that the CM should immediately suspend the two MLAs from the party following the court order to frame charges against them in the assault case as Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal were Arvind’s main troubleshooters, the Delhi Congress statement said. Kumar, in his statement, alleged that Jarwal had earlier been named in a suicide note by Dr Rajendra Singh, who owned a water tanker, holding him responsible for his death.
He claimed that the Delhi Police had filed a “weak” case against Kejriwal and his party MLAs which showed that the BJP was keen to “bail out Arvind, Sisodia and their MLAs from the case”. He said that as a quid pro quo, CM Arvind and his Cabinet “whole-heartedly supported” the Modi government’s anti-farmer laws by validating one of the laws at a special session of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha.
Earlier in the day, following the court decision, Kejriwal took to Twitter saying “Satyamev jayate (truth has won). His deputy Sisodia also held a virtual press conference and said that it was a false case.
“It is a day of victory of justice and truth. The court said that all allegations were false and baseless. the CM has been acquitted today in that false case. We had been saying from day one that allegations are false,” Sisodia said at an online press conference. The criminal case relates to the alleged assault on Prakash during a meeting at Kejriwal’s official residence on February 19, 2018. Besides the chief minister and his deputy, 11 AAP MLAs were also made accused in the case.
Kejriwal, Sisodia and nine other AAP MLAs were granted bail in October 2018. Khan and Jarwal were granted bail earlier by the high court.
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