CS assault case: court discharges Kejriwal, Dy. CM, 9 AAP leaders

Charges to be framed against 2 MLAs

A Delhi court on Wednesday discharged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and nine other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders in a case of assault on the then Chief Secretary, Anshu Prakash, during a meeting on February 19, 2018.

The court, however, ordered framing of charges against AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal for offences including assault or use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty.

Mr. Kejriwal, Mr. Sisodia and the nine leaders — Rajesh Rishi, Nitin Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Ajay Dutt, Sanjeev Jha, Rituraj Govind, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal and Dinesh Mohaniya — were named in the present case on the basis of Mr. Prakash’s complaint that the meeting was called at midnight by the Chief Minister under a “pre-planned conspiracy”.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta said, “From the conduct of A-3 (Mr. Kejriwal) and the surrounding circumstances, it cannot be inferred even remotely that he was part of any such conspiracy, much less to draw any inference of his complicity in the commission of offence.”

Star witness

The court relied on the statement given by star witness V.K. Jain, the then adviser to the Chief Minister, that Mr. Kejriwal asked the two MLAs — Mr. Khan and Mr. Jarwal — to refrain from any unruly behaviour.

“Once the Chief Minister did so, there was no occasion for the Deputy Chief Minister and the other MLAs present there to do the same,” the court said.

The court further rejected Mr. Prakash’s allegation that specific MLAs were chosen by the Chief Minister and the Deputy CM for the purpose of the meeting at midnight.

Terming the allegation as “without any merits”, the court said, “… They had gathered there as per the directions of the Chief Minister to attend a meeting.”

Mr. Jain, in his initial statement to police, had said that during the meeting he went to the washroom and could not say as to what happened during that time. However, he changed his stance while recording his statement before the magistrate. He said when he came back from the washroom, he saw Mr. Khan and Mr. Jarwal, by way of physically touching and pushing the Chief Secretary, were asking Mr. Prakash as to why he was not performing his duties. During that incident, Mr. Prakash’s spectacles fell down, he said.

“Allegations levelled by the complainant against Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal find corroboration from the statement of star witness Mr. V. K. Jain recorded under Section 164 of CrPC, which is sufficient at this stage to prima facie show their complicity in the commission of the offence,” the court said.

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