Kejriwal, Sisodia chargesheeted in Anshu Prakash assault case

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and 11 MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been named in the chargesheet filed by Delhi Police in Delhi's Patiala House Court in the alleged assault case of Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.

The 1300-page chargesheet has been filed under Sections 186, 323, 332, 342, 353, 504, 506(ii), 120B, 109, 114, 149, 34 and 36 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Samar Vishal.

The court will take cognisance of the matter on August 25.

Among the 11 MLAs named in the chargesheet are Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania.

Soon after the chargesheet was filed, Delhi Ministers Gopal Rai, Satyendar Jain, Kailash Gahlot, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Imran Hussain issued a joint statement, and rubbished the chargesheet as one based on "imaginary and false allegations."

"Filing of a bogus chargesheet by the politically motivated Delhi Police which is based on imaginary and false allegations by frustrated elements against the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, among others, is the latest example of the Central government's ongoing unprecedented witch-hunt against the Delhi Government, elected with highest ever mandate in India's electoral history," the statement read.

"Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah suffered the worst ever electoral humiliation of their political careers in February 2015, they have not forgiven the elected government of Delhi and have relentlessly unleashed all their agencies with full might to crush the Delhi government to fulfill their arrogant desire of seeking complete revenge. It appears that the Modi government has learnt no lesson from its previous attempt of booking elected MLAs in false cases during last three and a half years. It is now a documented fact that the Fast Track Courts in Delhi during last five months have acquitted/discharged elected MLAs in 19 out of 22 cases registered against them since February 2015," the statement added.

It was further alleged that the Centre was trying to paralyse the Delhi Government.

"From snatching powers of the elected Delhi government through an illegal notification to ACB and CBI raids, terrorising officers through raids and threats of transfers and ruining careers, no stone has been left unturned in paralysing the Delhi government. Despite all its might and coercion, including keeping 400 files locked in the Lieutenant Governor House for more than four months in a desperate bid to search for anything to implicate the Chief Minister and his council of ministers in false cases, when everything failed, the latest sinister conspiracy has been hatched through a handpicked bureaucrat of the BJP's central government to defame the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister in a totally false and untenable case."

The AAP claimed that the cases were filed against their ministers as a "result of the extreme frustration of the Modi government, which has so far miserably failed in all its attempts to dislodge the Delhi government elected by a historic mandate."

The statement added: "The Modi government in its hunger to settle scores with the Delhi government at all costs has turned the Delhi Police into a mere political tool, which will suffer major humiliation in the court of law, where its false and imaginary case will be put to legal scrutiny and it will have to prove its ridiculous charges."

The AAP minister further alleged that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government "shamelessly played with the credibility" of Delhi Police.

"The bogus chargesheet will be torn to shreds when it will be put to legal scrutiny and it will be contested with all legal strength to expose the real face of the Modi government and its puppet Delhi Police, before the people of this country," the statement concluded.

On February 20, Anshu Prakash had lodged a police complaint and alleged that he was manhandled at the Delhi Chief Minister's residence by two AAP MLAs - Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal.

Both Khan and Jarwal were arrested on February 21 and were later sent to 14-day judicial custody, which was further extended by 14 days. Later, both the leaders were granted by the Delhi High Court.

Prakash had alleged that he was thrashed by Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal at Kejriwal's residence, where he had been called to discuss Aadhaar-related problems.