Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, deputy Manish Sisodia ‘kingpins of criminal conspiracy’: Charge sheet

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia were the “kingpins” of a “criminal conspiracy” that led to an assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash at the CM’s official residence on February 19, according to the charge sheet filed by Delhi police.

The charge sheet, which has been seen by HT, was filed in a Delhi court on August 13. It blames Kejriwal and Sisodia for calling Prakash to the meeting “deceitfully”, and with “criminal intent”, to “pressurise” him.

Taking cognisance of the charge sheet on Tuesday, additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal directed Kejriwal, Sisodia and 11 other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators to be present in court on October 25. The court is likely to frame charges against them on that day. The AAP denies the allegations.

The 1,300-page document charges the 13 AAP leaders for offences, including criminal conspiracy, assaulting a public servant, threatening to cause death or grievous injury, and wrongful confinement, among other sections. The most stringent of the sections – section 506(2) – carries a maximum punishment of seven years in prison.

In the charge sheet, the police have accused AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal of abusing and slapping Prakash.

The police have alleged that the top bureaucrat was made to sit on a sofa and was hit on his head and temple by the two MLAs. The police have said that following the assault, Prakash’s spectacles fell on the ground, which left him “shocked.”

On Tuesday, AAP’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj called the charge sheet “bogus” and “fake”, and denied all allegations against his party leaders. He alleged that police registered the case to malign the Delhi government. On the Delhi Police calling the two top AAP leaders the “kingpins” of the attack, Congress leader Haroon Yusuf said the party has been “involved in criminality since its inception” and the charge sheet is a testimony of the fact. Ravinder Gupta, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi, said the charge sheet has exposed AAP completely. “Whatever police have said in the charge sheet about them is already known,” he said.

The Delhi Police had on February 20 filed an FIR based on Prakash’s complaint, in which he alleged he was called by the Kejriwal’s advisor, VK Jain, for a midnight meeting to discuss release of the party’s advertisements related to the government completing three years in Delhi.

The AAP said at the time that Kejriwal and MLAs had called Prakash to discuss why a large number of families were not getting rations due to the glitches in the implementation of Aadhaar.

Prakash said that he was manhandled and assaulted in the course of the meeting. Police filed the case after the chief secretary was examined by a team of doctors at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

The alleged attack caused a rift between IAS officers and the political executive of the Delhi government.