Kejriwal, Sisodia given clean chit in ex-chief secretary assault case

A Delhi court on Wednesday exonerated chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, and nine Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs over the alleged assault on the former Delhi chief secretary (CS) Anshu Prakash during a midnight meeting in 2018, ruling that there was no “unlawful assembly” or “criminal conspiracy” that led to the incident

A Delhi court on Wednesday exonerated chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, and nine Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs over the alleged assault on the former Delhi chief secretary (CS) Anshu Prakash during a midnight meeting in 2018, ruling that there was no “unlawful assembly” or “criminal conspiracy” that led to the incident.

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“…There was no prior meeting of minds, prior concert, conspiracy or pre-meditation amongst the accused persons to commit any offence against the complainant (Prakash),” the court said in its verdict.

In his police complaint in February 2018, Prakash alleged that Kejriwal, Sisodia, and 11 AAP MLAs assaulted him in a midnight meeting called by the CM’s former adviser VK Jain on February 19, 2018, to discuss release of the party’s advertisements related to the government completing three years in Delhi.

Prakash alleged that he was manhandled and assaulted in the course of the meeting.

Metropolitan magistrate Sachin Gupta ruled that the incident happened suddenly, after some of the MLAs started questioning Prakash over some issues and in the spur of the moment, and two of the MLAs — Amanatullah Khan and Parkash Jarwal -- allegedly assaulted him without any conspiracy or pre-meditation.

“During the course of a meeting called by the Chief Minister, whose own conduct is not suspicious at all, if something untoward allegedly happened, that itself does not render the meeting an unlawful assembly or does not make the presence of CM, deputy CM and other accused MLAs as part of or acting under a criminal conspiracy or sharing common intention or even abetting in any manner, commission of alleged offence,” the court said. It also refused to make anything of the fact that the meeting was scheduled at midnight.

It said that labelling a meeting called by the CM at his residence, attended by his deputy and eleven other MLAs, as unlawful assembly or part of any criminal conspiracy, “can seriously hamper the smooth functioning of the government and public interest would suffer ultimately”.

The court added that if Prakash had felt any threat to his life, he would have raised an alarm and certainly called his PSO (personal security officer) immediately after he came out of the meeting room , which he did not do, and this conduct speaks volume.

It also said that Prakash neither made a call to 100 (police helpline) nor lodged the police complaint immediately thereafter, clearly demonstrating that there was no threat to his life.

The court, however, framed charges against Khan and Jarwal for obstructing a public servant on duty, assaulting him, and voluntarily causing hurt to him, taking note of the statement by Jain.

Soon after the verdict was passed, Kejriwal tweeted: “Satyamev Jayate” (truth will prevail).

Sisodia told reporters that the whole case was a conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was scared of Kejriwal’s popularity. “A false police case was made against him by the BJP which misused its power in the central government. Delhi Police reports to them,” he claimed

A Delhi BJP spokesperson dismissed these charges as “baseless” and contended that the CM and deputy CM were exonerated only due to “lack of evidence”.

Delhi Police, which probed the incident, filed a 1,300-page charge sheet on August 13, 2018, against 13 AAP leaders -- including Kejriwal and Sisodia -- for offences including criminal conspiracy, assaulting a public servant, threatening to cause death or grievous injury, and wrongful confinement.

On Wednesday, the court said that there was no evidence to suggest that the accused persons perpetrated or abetted the crime.

“There is also no material available on record to infer that the alleged act of assault and intimidation by some of the accused persons present there was done in furtherance of common intention of all present there or that there was any pre-arranged plan or prior meeting of minds or prior concert amongst the accused persons present there,” the court added.

The judge also said that just because the meeting was at midnight, it did “not give rise to the proposition that it was under a pre-planned conspiracy,” the court said.

“Hence, plea..the meeting was intentionally scheduled at midnight under a preplanned conspiracy, whereas no such issue was raised during the day time meetings, which he attended with the Chief Minister and Deputy CM, is also not sustainable,” it added.

The court noted the statement of CM’s former advisor VK Jain, who said that the MLAs started aggressively questioning Prakash on several topics. Jain added in his statement that he went to the washroom, and when he came back, he saw two of the MLAs -- Khan and Jarwal -- pushing Prakash, and putting their hands on his chin. He added that the CM asked them to refrain from doing so, and was unhappy with the conduct of the MLAs.

The judge also did not accept the allegation that specific MLAs were chosen by the CM and deputy CM for the purpose of the meeting. He said that they had all gathered on the CM’s directions to discuss various issues, including doorstep delivery of ration, TV advertisements, etc, and hence “referring to those MLAs as ‘specific MLAs’ chosen for some ‘specific purpose’, does not make any sense and does not fortify the theory of conspiracy, as portrayed”.

The court said that Prakash had the option of putting a dissent note over the issues being discussed, and that he was not the final authority on any of them.

Taking note of the statements of two witnesses, former North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NrDMC) chief Varsha Joshi and the then managing director of DTTDC Shurbir Singh, the court noted that even on February 12, the CM firmly asked Prakash to complete the work.

The high court on August 24 last yeardirected the trial court to only pass orders on the charges levelled by the police, and not on any other issues. This was after Kejriwal challenged an order of the trial court allowing a Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) to represent him in court

On October 22, 2018, a city court had allowed Prakash to have an SPP instead of a regular public prosecutor to represent him in court. On November 20, 2018, the CM and his deputy had moved court challenging this order following which the order was stayed on March 14, 2019.

The matter would be now heard on September 21.