CS assault case: Court issues notice to Delhi Police on Kejriwal's plea

A Delhi court today sought the response of the city police on an application by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeking a copy of a video and his statement recorded by the probe agency on May 18 in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in February.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal issued a notice to the Delhi Police and directed the investigation officer (IO) and the DCP to file a response to Kejriwal's plea by May 29. It also directed the IO to be present before the court.

In his application, moved through advocate B S Joon, Kejriwal said that after the proceedings on the day, the police made a statement before the media that Kejriwal had evaded certain questions by not giving proper answers, which was "fully incorrect".

"The conduct of the police before the media gives an indication that the police can go to any extent to frame him or any other member of the AAP by tempering with the said statement/CD," the application said, adding that he was entitled to get a copy of the statement and the CD.

The Delhi Police had on May 18 questioned Kejriwal for over three hours in connection with the alleged assault on Prakash.

Police sources had said some questions put to Kejriwal included the decision to convene the late night meeting with Prakash, the sequence of events that led to the assault and the trigger for the incident.

During investigation, the police had found that the assault was pre-planned and Kejriwal's private secretary Bibhav Kumar had directed a party volunteer to call the MLAs.

Prakash was allegedly assaulted during a meeting at Kejriwal's official residence on February 19. The police said the chief minister was present when the alleged assault took place.

Kejriwal had agreed to join the probe yesterday following a notice by the Delhi Police on May 16.

The police have already questioned 11 AAP MLAs present at the chief minister's residence for the meeting. Two of the party MLAs -- Amantullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal --were arrested in the case.

Last month, Kejriwal's private secretary Bibhav Kumar and a party volunteer Vivek Kumar were also questioned in connection with the case.

Kejriwal, his former advisor V K Jain and Sisodia were also present at the meeting. Jain was also questioned in the case.

On February 23, a police team had examined the CCTV system installed at the chief minister's residence in the Civil Lines area and seized the hard disk. The forensic report on the hard disk is still awaited.

The alleged assault on the chief secretary had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats.