Delhi Special Court discharges CM Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in Chief Secretary assault case [Read Order]

A Special Court at Rouse Avenue in Delhi dealing with cases of legislators on Wednesday discharged Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and other AAP MLAs in an alleged case of assault on former Delhi Chief Secretary. [State v Amanatullah Khan & Ors]The Court, however, ordered framing of charges against AAP's Amantullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal in the matter."Accused persons namely Arvind Kejriwal (A-3), Manish Sisodia (A-4), Rajesh Rishi (A5), Nitin Tyagi (A-6), Praveen Kumar (A-7), Ajay Dutt (A-8), Sanjeev Jha (A-9), Rituraj Govind (A-10), Rajesh Gupta (A-11), Madan Lal (A-12) and Dinesh Mohania (A-13) are discharged in the present case. Whereas, prima facie case for offences under section 186/332/353/323/34 IPC is made out against the accused persons namely Amanatullah Khan (A-1) and Prakash Jarwal (A-2)," held Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta..The court stated, “It appears that the alleged incident with the complainant happened suddenly, after some of the MLAs started questioning him (then chief secretary) over some issues and in the spur of the moment, two of the aforesaid MLAs allegedly assaulted and hit him, without any conspiracy, prior meeting of minds or pre-meditation amongst the accused persons present there.”It went ahead to point out that if during the course of a meeting called by the Chief Minister, whose own conduct was not suspicious at all, if something untoward had allegedly happened, that itself would neither render the meeting as an unlawful assembly nor make the presence of CM, Deputy CM and other accused MLAs as part of or acting under a criminal conspiracy or having shared a common intention."Moreover, it is clearly demonstrated from the statement under Section 164 Cr PC of the witness Mr V K Jain that the Chief Minister asked the two MLAs to refrain from any unruly behaviour. Once the Chief Minister did so, there was no occasion for the Deputy Chief Minister and other MLAs present there to do the same, especially when as per the version of said witness, the complainant himself left the meeting immediately after taking permission from the Chief Minister. Hence, the contention raised on behalf of prosecution/complainant that CM, Deputy CM and other MLAs present there did not intervene during the alleged assault, holds no ground," the court held..The verdict also highlighted that there was no material to infer that the alleged act of assault and intimidation by some of the accused persons was done as a part of a common intention of all present there or that there was any pre-arranged plan or prior meeting of minds."Moreover, even calling of such meeting at 12 midnight by the Chief Minister, in which the complainant, was asked to attend and answer the MLAs, cannot be considered as part of criminal conspiracy or design amongst the accused persons, to assault and threaten the complainant, in order to pressurise him... Complainant was none other than the senior most bureaucrat of the Government of NCT of Delhi. Even complainant himself stated in his complaint that he was discharging his official duties, while he attended the said meeting at the CM residence," the order stated.The Court said it was not to merely act as a "post-office" or a "mouthpiece of the prosecution" but consider the broad probabilities of the case..The Delhi police had chargesheeted Kejriwal, Sisodia and others under Sections 186/323/332/342/353/504/506(ii)/120B/109/114/149/34 and 36 of the IPC.The lawmakers included, Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania.Additional public prosecutor Atul Srivastava had argued that the alleged assault on Prakash was an “unfortunate and shameful” incident where the senior-most officer of the State was criminally intimidated and assaulted.He stated that the alleged assault took place at the CM’s residence where the 11 MLAs had a meeting with Anshu Prakash. "We say Atiti Devo Bhava where guests should be honourably treated, but treat them like this?" Shrivastava had said.It was alleged that the bureaucrat was forced to "consent on a certain thing" in the meeting. "He was intimidated and assaulted by the two persons. There are Injuries in the MLC," it was argued.Senior Counsel Sidharth Luthra and Advocate Kumar Vaibhav appeared for the complainant. Senior Counsel N Hariharan and Advocate Mohd Irshad represented Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Senior Counsel Dayan Krishnan along with Advocate Mohd Irshad appeared for Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. Advocate Badar Mahmood represented Rajesh Rishi. Advocate Bhavook Chauhan argued for Nitin Tyagi. Advocate Mujeeb Ahmad appeared for Praveen Kumar and Advocate S P Yadav represented Ajay Dutt. Advocate Ajay Pratap Singh represented Amanatullah Khan. Advocate B S Joon and Aakriti Mishra argued for Prakash Jarwal. Additional Public Prosecutor Lalit Pingolia represented the State.