Chief secy assault: Delhi court rejects AAP’s plea to curb police’s media leaks

A city court dismissed a plea filed by AAP MLAs seeking to restrain the Delhi police from leaking any information on the chief secretary assault case to the media.

A city court dismissed a plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, including chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, seeking to restrain the Delhi police from leaking any information on the chief secretary assault case to the media.

The plea was filed by AAP MLAs , including chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia. (HT Photo)

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal quashed the application, suggesting they file a fresh application as counsel for the MLAs were submitting a CD containing news report clippings in which additional deputy commissioner of police Harendra Singh was quoted.

Advocate BS Joon, appearing for the 13 MLAs, told the court that the Delhi police had not replied to the application even though notice has been issued to them.

However, countering this submission, Singh said that the application has been filed to malign the image of the police.

“The things that were told were public information. AAP had held a press conference after the charge sheet was filed and made remarks like ---“ye to kachra hai” (this is rubbish). How can they question my integrity and uprightness? They are casting aspersions. Please restrain these loud-mouthed party functionaries from making such statements,” Singh said.

Joon countered this, saying that the police officers are ruled by a set of guidelines, unlike political parties.

The court had posted the matter post lunch after the arguments.

In the joint application filed by advocate Mohd Irshad, police have been accused of selectively leaking the excerpts of the charge sheet to the media to “assassinate the character of the persons allegedly mentioned in the charge sheet, especially Kejriwal and Sisodia”.

According to the plea filed after the charge sheet, the matter is subjudice and that the court is yet to take cognizance of the charges. The plea said that if police is not restrained from making such “uncalled for, unwarranted and biased comments” against the chief minister and his deputy, it would cause ‘irreparable loss to their image and the proceeding in the case would also be affected.”

On February 20, Delhi police had registered a first information report (FIR) against AAP MLA ‘Amanatullah Khan and others’ on chief secretary Anshu Prakash’s complaint alleging that he was called to the chief minister’s residence for a midnight meeting on the night February 19, when he was assaulted by the party legislators in presence of Kejriwal and Sisodia.