New Delhi: There was a massive twist in the assault case on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on Thursday. During a hearing on the case, Delhi Police told the court that it had found clinching testimony that proved the Chief Secretary was, indeed, assaulted. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the other hand, said the testimony was obtained by the police under duress.
The AAP's claim rests on the fact that both testimonies, one under Section 161 of the CrPC and the other under 164, by a top aide of CM Arvind Kejriwal say two completely different things.
According to the testimony, delivered by Kejriwal aide and retired civil servant Vinod Kumar Jain on Wednesday, he never saw Prakash actually being assaulted. "MLAs started asking the CS questions about doorstep delivery of rations, advertisement fund release and slow processing of files," the first testimony claims.
It adds, "During this time, I got up and went to the washroom. When I came out, I saw that the CS was leaving and the CM said to me that the meeting was over and I, too, could go home. I then went home."
During this round of questions, the police asked Jain, "Did you see the CS being misbehaved with or assaulted?". To this, Jain replied, "I went to the washroom for a bit during the meeting. I cannot say what happened in that time."
On Thursday, however, Delhi Police said he had said he saw the actual assault, which the AAP claimed was an attempt to destabilise the government. AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, arrested for allegedly assaulting Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash, were on Thursday sent in 14-day judicial custody in Tihar Jail by a Delhi court which reserved its order on their bail pleas for Friday.
"New facts have emerged in the case. The advisor to the CM is being interrogated and his statement under Section 164 of the CrPC has been recorded. He has given us four names. The police custody of both the MLAs is required to unearth the whole conspiracy," the public prosecutor said on Thursday, moving a fresh plea for their custody.
During the hearing on Thursday, the public prosecutor told the court that Jain had called the chief secretary for a meeting at 8:45 pm on Monday, and at 10:00 pm the officer confirmed to him that he would attend the meeting.
Advocate Rajiv Mohan, appearing for Prakash, also supported the plea for police custody, saying the alleged attack on the officer was pre-meditated and was witnessed by the CM's adviser.
In his statement, Jain said when the meeting started, Kejriwal said that MLAs wanted to discuss certain issues but randomly all of them started questioning the chief secretary about the delay in the release of funds for AAP government's media publicity on its achievement in education and fighting corruption.
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