Anshu Prakash assault case: Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia named in chargesheet

Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Police on Monday filed a chargesheet against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs for allegedly assaulting Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in February.

The chargesheet, filed in the Patiala House Court on the basis of investigation conducted on the complaint of Prakash, also names Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania.

"On February 20, a case was registered on the complaint of Prakash. After completion of the investigation and upon collection of evidence on record, a chargesheet has been filed in the court," a Delhi Police official said.

The Chief Secretary had alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLAs in the presence of Kejriwal at the Chief Minister's residence on the night of February 19, where he had been called for a late-night meeting.

However, in a joint statement, Delhi Cabinet ministers Gopal Rai, Satyendar Jain, Kailash Gahlot, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Imran Hussain called the chargesheet "bogus" and "politically motivated".

Stating that the chargesheet is based on "imaginary and false allegations", the Delhi ministers termed it a "witch-hunt against the Delhi government".

The chargesheet, "filed by the politically motivated Delhi Police", is based on "imaginary and false allegations", they said.

"It is the latest example of the Central government's ongoing unprecedented witch-hunt against the Delhi government, elected with highest-ever mandate in India's electoral history," the statement said.

The ministers also said that ever since the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) President Amit Shah have suffered the "worst-ever electoral humiliation of their political career" in February 2015, they have not "forgiven the elected government of Delhi".

"They have relentlessly unleashed all their agencies with full might to crush the AAP government to fulfil their arrogant desire of seeking complete revenge," read the statement.

They also said that the Modi government has not learnt any lesson from its previous attempt of booking elected MLAs in false cases in the last three-and-half years.

"It is now a documented fact that the fast-track courts in Delhi during the last five months have acquitted/ discharged elected MLAs in 19 out of 22 cases registered against them since February 2015," the statement added.

They also said that no stone has been left unturned in paralysing the Delhi government.

"The latest sinister conspiracy has been hatched through a handpicked bureaucrat of the BJP's Central government to defame the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister in a totally false and untenable case.

"This entire conspiracy to name the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister in a fake and laughable criminal case is the result of the extreme frustration of the Modi government, which has so far miserably failed in all its attempts to dislodge the Delhi government elected by a historic mandate," the statement said.

The ministers also claimed that the chargesheet would be torn to shreds when it is put to legal scrutiny.

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