Prakash Jarwal Archives

CS assault: Police denied AAP MLAs’ custody, sent to jail

by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics

New Delhi : A Delhi court on Wednesday sent two Aam Aadmi Party MLAs — Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal — who were arrested on charges of assaulting Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash — in judicial custody till Thursday.

On Wednesday, Metropolitan Magistrate Shefali Barnala Tandon refused a Delhi Police plea for police custody of Khan and Jarwal and said their bail pleas will be taken up on Thursday.

While Jarwal was arrested on Tuesday night, Khan surrendered at a city police station on Wednesday.

This came after the Chief Secretary alleged that he was beaten up by the two MLAs in the presence of Arvind Kejriwal at the Chief Minister’s residence on Monday night, where he had been called for a meeting.

On Tuesday, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain was manhandled at the Delhi Secretariat by a crowd protesting against the alleged assault and his Personal Secretary Himanshu Singh was beaten up, according to multiple video clips from the Secretariat.

Medical examination reports on Wednesday revealed injuries both on the Chief Secretary and the Minister’s aide.

The Chief Secretary paid a visit to the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday evening, but did not brief on what transpired in the meeting at the PMO.

On Wednesday evening, the senior officer did not turn up for a Delhi Assembly committee meeting which AAP Chief Spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said was “contempt of Assembly” and the committee was thinking of initiating “contempt proceedings” in the matter.

Bharadwaj said the Chief Secretary and two other IAS officers did not turn up because of an IAS Association’s decision on Tuesday that officers will not meet or talk on phone with the Chief Minister or his Ministers or party MLAs till Kejriwal apologised and took action on the alleged assault.

Informed sources told IANS that as far as they knew, Indian Administrative Service officers did not have any meetings at all with Delhi Ministers on Wednesday, going by their decision.

The Chief Secretary’s medical examination revealed “mild swelling behind both ears” and “bruise over lower lip”. The report termed the nature of injuries “simple” and the weapon used as “blunt”.

Meanwhile, the ministerial aide’s medical report shared by a Delhi government spokesperson revealed “multiple bruises seen all over back, linear in shape”.

Speaking about the Chief Secretary’s absence in the Assembly meeting, Bharadwaj said: “The Committee members feel that against all these people and against IAS Association leaders, contempt proceedings have to be taken up. The committee has not taken a decision yet, but will think about it.”

The MLA said that the Chief Secretary was supposed to come for the meeting at 5 p.m., but he and two other IAS officers did not turn up despite the panel waiting for them till 6.15 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal’s adviser V.K. Jain was questioned at the Civil Lines police station and let off.

The alleged assault on the top bureaucrat triggered a political storm on Tuesday, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding Kejriwal’s resignation and the Congress seeking his apology.

The AAP hit back by accusing the Chief Secretary of making false allegations and said he was working at the “behest of the BJP”.

The Home Ministry sought a report from Lt Governor Anil Baijal as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he was “deeply pained” by the development. The L-G has since submitted a report on the issue to the Home Ministry.

IAS Association Secretary Manisha Saxena told IANS that they would stick to their decision of not meeting Delhi Ministers.

—IANS

Bureaucrat assault case: Dalit, Muslim MLAs targeted, says AAP

by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics

New Delhi : Calling the alleged assault on a Delhi bureaucrat a “conspiracy”, the ruling AAP on Wednesday said that its two MLAs — Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan — were arrested in the case without any inquiry because they belonged to the Dalit and Muslim community respectively.

Based on the allegation of assault made by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, the two were arrested on the BJP’s instructions without being given a chance to state their version, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh told the media.

Citing examples of Gujarat’s Una and Rajasthan’s Pehlu Khan’s case, Singh said under the BJP’s rule in various states, Dalits and Muslims were victims of communal violence.

Taking a dig at BJP Delhi unit Chief Manoj Tiwari, Singh said: “You call us urban Naxalites (Maoists)? We have never incited any violence (among different communities).”

He said the police ignored the evidence on the attack on AAP Minister Imran Hussain and his personal secretary Himanshu Singh but acted on the statement by the Chief Secretary.

“We have the video footage of what happened at Delhi Secretariat yesterday (Tuesday) when our Minister and his Personal Secretary were attacked by a mob that was incited by the BJP but nothing has been done about it.

“Words of the Chief Secretary are being treated as gospel truth,” he said, adding the top bureaucrat was making “false” allegations.

Party leader Ashutosh alleged that on Tuesday people outside the Delhi Secretariat were provoked and that led to the commotion and beating up of Hussain and his aide.

“CCTV footage should be made public to identify the perpetrators,” he demanded.

Singh said there was a conspiracy against their party and people were “strategically” brought to the Secretariat.

“Shouldn’t Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) show concern about ministers being assaulted inside Delhi Secretariat?”

“Will the same country have different rules for different people?” Singh questioned.

The AAP leader said that an emergency meeting was convened on Monday night to address the issue of 250,000 families who were deprived of food rations due to faulty implementation of Aadhaar.

“When the Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) can visit people at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., why can’t there be a late night meeting regarding the important issue of rations?

“If somebody dies of hunger in the state, will the Chief Secretary be answerable or will it be the Lt Governor (Anil Baijal)? Arvind Kejriwal will be questioned,” he said.

According to the AAP leader, the Chief Secretary, who has alleged that AAP MLAs assaulted him in the presence of Kejriwal during the meeting, would have called police immediately after the incident if he was actually assaulted.

“Anybody physically assaulted by someone would immediately call the police. Why didn’t the Chief Secretary do so? The next morning he started making these allegations against our MLAs.

Asking why the Chief Secretary’s injury report wasn’t prepared by a doctor on the same day, Sanjay Singh said: “The medico-legal certificate is coming today when the incident happened three days back.”

Stressing that this was a BJP-led Central government’s conspiracy against the AAP, he said: “To be associated with AAP is considered to be a crime by the Centre.

“AAP is always the soft target. The government now wishes to take the attention away from Nirav Modi, (Vikram) Kothari, Jatin Mehta and that is why this thing was brought up.”

“Since the very beginning, there have been attempts to finish our government in the state. They don’t want us to function.”

—IANS