Kejriwal, Sisodia, 11 AAP MLAs summoned by Delhi court in CS assault case

A Delhi court Tuesday summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 AAP legislators, who are accused in the Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash assault case, to appear before it on October 25.

The court issued summons to all the 13 accused and directed them to appear on October 25, saying there were sufficient grounds to establish the charges against them in the case.

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

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal issued the summons after taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police on August 13.

Besides Kejriwal and Sisodia, the charge sheet also names 11 MLAs of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (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 offenses 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 offense.

"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 judge also heard arguments on an application moved by the chief secretary seeking a direction to the Delhi Police to conduct the prosecution through the counsels selected by the police and said it would pass the order on the issue on October 10.

After the court issued the summons, the Aam Aadmi Party reacted sharply to the charge sheet against its leaders and MLAs, terming it as part of a "larger design" to malign the party's government.

Accusing the BJP-led government at the Centre of filing "many bogus cases", AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj told reporters that all of them have "miserably fallen flat" in the courts.

"The latest fake case will also meet the same fate as the previous ones. AAP assures the people that such conspiracies will not deter the party's resolve of working tirelessly for the residents of Delhi," he said.

The court had on August 25 reserved the order while rejecting a plea moved by Kejriwal, his deputy and the other legislators seeking to restrain the police from sharing information with the media on the charge sheet.

It had then said it needed time to go through the 1,300-page charge sheet, in which the police has alleged that Kejriwal, Sisodia and the others had criminally conspired to threaten the Chief Secretary with death or grievous hurt, obstructed him in discharging his public function and caused hurt.

The AAP leaders were also charged with the offense committed under IPC section 149, which says if an offense is committed by a member of an unlawful assembly, every other member of such assembly shall be held guilty of the offense.

The Delhi Police had on May 18 questioned Kejriwal for over three hours in connection with the case, alleging that he was present when the alleged assault took place. Two of the party MLAs -- Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal -- were also arrested.

The alleged assault had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats.