Court summons Kejri, Manish Sisodia

New Delhi: A city court on Tuesday summoned chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 AAP MLAs as accused in the chief secretary Anshu Prakash assault case, after taking cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the police.

Mr Prakash was allegedly assaulted during a meeting at Kejriwal’s official residence on February 19 night.

There are sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused involved in the chief secretary assault case, said a Delhi court on Tuesday. The CM has been asked by Patilala house court to appear on October 25.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal issued summons after taking cognisance of the 3,000-page chargesheet filed by the Delhi police on August 13.

Mr Kejriwal and Mr Sisodia have been booked under various Sections of the IPC, including Sections 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty).

The others accused in the case are Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar, and Dinesh Mohania. They were present at the chief minister’s residence for the meeting, on February 19, in which Mr Prakash was allegedly attacked.

In the 3,000-page chargesheet the police alleged that Mr Kejriwal, Mr Sisodia, and the others had conspired to threaten the chief secretary, obstructed him in discharging his public function, and caused hurt. They have also been accused of wrongful confinement, intentional insult, abetment, and unlawful assembly.

Mr Prakash had alleged that he was attacked at a late night meeting in February over a delay in releasing a three-year anniversary TV campaign. Initially he was threatened and then Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal “started hitting and assaulting him.”  

The AAP government had called the allegations in the police charge sheet as “fake and laughable.” It said that it was the “result of the extreme frustration of the Modi government.”

The alleged attack had led to a month-long face-off between the ministers and bureaucrats, which was resolved in June.

If convicted, the chief minister and his lawmakers may get a maximum of seven-year jail term.