New Delhi: Calling the alleged assault on a Delhi bureaucrat a “conspiracy”, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said its two MLAs — Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan — were arrested in the case without any inquiry because they belonged to the minority communities — Dalits and Muslims.
Based on the allegation of assault made by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, the two were arrested without being given a chance to state their version, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh told the media.
“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.
Sanjay Singh alleged that provocative speeches were given outside the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday that led to the commotion and beating up of Minister Imran Hussain and his Personal Secretary Himanshu Singh.
He said under the BJP’s rule in various states, Dalits and Muslims were victims of communal violence.
The Chief Secretary, who has alleged that AAP MLAs assaulted him in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal late on Monday, would have called the police immediately after the incident if he was actually assaulted, the AAP leader said.
‘No physical attacks’
“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.
On Monday, an emergency meeting was convened to address the issue of 250,000 families who were deprived of food rations due to faulty implementation of Aadhaar.
“I know the conversation that was happening at CM’s residence on the issue of people not getting ration turned into an argument … there was a heated argument but no physical attacks were made.”
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, Sanjay Singh said: “To be associated with AAP is considered to be a crime by the Centre.
‘Soft target’
“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.”
The Congress on Wednesday called the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by two AAP MLAs a “planned strategy” of the ruling party and demanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologise to the bureaucrat.
“The case of assault on Chief Secretary is a very shameful act and the situation of administrative paralysis is very dangerous for the national capital,” Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken told the media after meeting Lt Governor Anil Baijal along with three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
“We have met the LG and demanded security to the officials so that they can work with dignity and there is no political pressure on them.”
He alleged the Kejriwal government has “failed on all fronts in the last three years. And thus it was a fully planned strategy of the AAP to divert the attention of people from their failures”.
