Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking inquiry by a Special Investigation Team into the attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house on Tuesday, reported Live Law.
On Wednesday, the Aam Aadmi Party had alleged that members of the Bharatiya Janata Party broke close-circuit television cameras and security barriers at Kejriwal’s house in the presence of the Delhi Police.
Meanwhile, hours after Bharadwaj filed the petition, Kejriwal said that the country’s biggest political party – the BJP – resorting to hooliganism, would send a wrong message among citizens.
“Arvind Kejriwal is not important but the country is,” he said at an event in Delhi, according to PTI. “I can lay down my life for the nation. India will not progress through such hoolignanism.”
In CCTV camera footage shared by the Aam Aadmi Party on its Twitter handle on Wednesday, 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 that 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.
What does Bharadwaj’s petition say?
The petition sought an independent, fair and timely probe into the attack, as well as directions to the police to provide protection to Kejriwal, reported Live Law.
The petition also contended that the Delhi Police was guilty of “doing little to stop the protestors.”
“Delhi Police was hand in glove with the goons as the goons are members of the ruling party in the central government, which has absolute control over Delhi Police through the Ministry of Home Affairs,” the petition stated.
Bharadwaj expressed apprehensions that the Delhi Police, being under the authority of the Centre, would not carry out an independent and fair investigation or take disciplinary action against the officers responsible for maintaining Z+ security cordon outside the chief minister’s house.
The incident
Sagar Singh Kalsi, the Delhi Police’s deputy commissioner (North) had said on Wednesday that about 150-200 protestors from the BJP Yuva Morcha held a protest outside Kejriwal’s residence around 11.30 am.
He added 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 had detained about 70 of the protestors.
The Delhi Police has registered a case against unidentified people in connection to the attack 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.
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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