The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday alleged that members of the Bharatiya Janata Party attacked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house in Delhi. The party said that “BJP goons” broke close-circuit television cameras and security barriers at Kejriwal’s house, and that the attack took place in the presence of the Delhi Police.
On its Twitter handle, the Aam Aadmi Party shared CCTV camera footage in which a group of people – some of them wearing saffron scarves and headgear – could be seen breaking a security barrier in front of Kejriwal’s house and banging on the main gate.
The party also posted photos on Twitter which show that the gate of the chief minister’s house has been vandalised. One of the photos showed that BJP youth wing chief Tejasvi Surya was also part of the group that attacked Kejriwal’s house.
The Delhi Police said it has registered a case against “unidentified” people in connection to the attack, PTI reported.
Sagar Singh Kalsi, the Delhi Police’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) said the case has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty). A case has also been registered under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
Kalsi said that about 150-200 protestors from the BJP Yuva Morcha held a protest outside Kejriwal’s residence around 11.30 am, according to ANI.
He further said that at around 1 pm, some protestors breached two barricades and shouted slogans outside the chief minister’s house. “They were carrying a small box of paint from which they threw paint outside the door,” he said, adding that the police detained about 70 protestors.
Meanwhile, at a press conference, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the BJP was “trying to murder” Kejriwal as it could not defeat him in elections.
“The BJP has been completely rattled by its defeat and the Aam Aadmi Party’s overwhelming victory in Punjab,” Sisodia said.
In response, Surya described the Aam Aadmi Party’s allegation of an attempt to kill Kejriwal as “hysterical”. He said the BJP members had held the protest against Kejriwal’s “mocking of Kashmiri Pandits” in a speech in the Delhi Assembly.
“I also take exception to him [Sisodia] referring to BJP workers as goons,” Surya said. “How can he call democratically elected MPs as goons? Is this the AAP’s commitment to democracy?”
The BJP has been holding protests against Kejriwal in connection with his remarks on March 24 about the Hindi film The Kashmir Files.
Kejriwal had said that the makers of the film should release it on video streaming platform YouTube so that everyone could watch it free of cost. He had made the comment in response to demands by BJP leaders that that the movie should be exempted from entertainment tax in Delhi.
The Kashmir Files, released on March 11, is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the 1990s. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have endorsed the movie.
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