AAP MLAs sent to judicial custody

New Delhi, February 22

AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, arrested for allegedly assaulting Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, were today sent to 14-day judicial custody in Tihar Jail by a Delhi court which reserved its order on their bail pleas for tomorrow.

The two MLAs, on expiry of their one-day judicial custody, were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Shefali Barnala Tondon who heard their bail applications and put up for hearing a fresh application filed by the Delhi police seeking their custodial interrogation to ascertain why the Chief Secretary was called at the midnight.

“Arguments of both the parties have been heard. The prosecution and the defence have relied on certain judgments. The court needs time for perusal of the same… order on bail and police custody tomorrow,” the court said.

During the proceedings, the police moved the fresh plea seeking police custody of the accused persons saying they were required to be interrogated to find out why the Chief Secretary was called at the midnight to CM’s residence.

Advocate BS Joon, appearing for the MLAs, said there was no fresh ground for seeking custody and the police were relying on the same old arguments.

The court had yesterday termed the alleged assault on the Chief Secretary was a “highly sensitive” case, but refused the plea of the Delhi Police to quiz them in custody for two days, saying the legislators were ready to cooperate in the investigation and no case property was to be recovered from them, which was the basic purpose of police custody.

The two MLAs were arrested in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat during a meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on the night of February 19. While Jarwal, an MLA from Deoli, was arrested on Tuesday night, Khan was taken into custody yesterday afternoon.

Atul Shrivastava today said there were numerous criminal cases pending against both the MLAs since 1995. “He (Khan) had started with slapping a junior engineer and today he has assaulted a chief secretary,” he said.

The prosecutor said the Chief Secretary was made to sit between Khan and Jarwar who threatened him to sign a document for release of funds for an advertisement relating to corruption and education.

Prakash was then physically assaulted and slapped by the MLAs, he said, adding that the two accused were required to be interrogated to find out why the Chief Secretary was called at midnight. — PTI