New Delhi: A Delhi court Tuesday summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 AAP MLAs as accused in the Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash assault case, after taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the police.
Prakash was allegedly assaulted during a meeting at Kejriwal’s official residence on February 19 night. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal issued summons after taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police on August 13.
The court issued summons to all the accused and directed them to appear before it on October 25, saying there were sufficient grounds to establish the charges against them in the case.
Besides Kejriwal and Sisodia, the charge sheet also names 11 legislators of the ruling AAP)as accused. They are Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania. The judge said he was taking cognizance of the offences against all the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including wrongful confinement, assaulting or using criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty, insulting him to provoke breach of peace and abetment of the offence. “There are sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused…Let these accused be summoned through investigating officer for October 25,” the judge said. If convicted, the accused may get a maximum of seven-year jail term.
The court also heard arguments on an application moved by the chief secretary seeking a direction to the Delhi Police to conduct prosecution through the counsels selected by the investigating agency, and said it would pass order on the issue on October 10. (PTI)
