The Delhi Police on Saturday booked Aam Aadmi Party MLA Naresh Balyan for making allegedly inflammatory remarks about Delhi government officials, PTI reported on Sunday. The police officer who filed a complaint against Balyan said the legislator had claimed public servants who delay welfare work “should be beaten up”.
Balyan made the comments days after two AAP MLAs were booked for allegedly assaulting Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s home. In his speech, Balyan had claimed that Delhi government officials delay developmental work by holding up files for “commission”.
Unidentified police officers told The Indian Express on Sunday that Balyan faces charges of “threat to public servants, making statements conducive to public mischief, abetting of an offence and obstructing public servants from performing their duties”. He has not been arrested yet.
“The case against the Uttam Nagar MLA was registered on Saturday at the Dabri Police Station,” a police officer said. “We booked the MLA after a policeman on duty registered a complaint after hearing his speech at JJ colony in Bindapur on February 23.” The police officer also claimed that Kejriwal and Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam attended the event.
However, AAP Delhi’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of controlling the Delhi Police, The Times of India reported. “Video evidence is also available for Indian Administrative Service officers have beaten up state ministers and the Delhi Dialogue Commission vice chairman,” he claimed. “Why is there not a single arrest? Is it not politics?”
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