Days after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told party colleagues that they should be prepared to “go to jail many times” and alleged that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi could get him “killed”, another AAP MLA, Sharad Chauhan of Narela, was arrested late Saturday night in connection with the alleged suicide of a woman worker of the party on July 19.
Chauhan is the twelfth AAP MLA booked by police for various offences. On Sunday, AAP leaders, without commenting on Chauhan’s arrest, directed their ire at the Prime Minister, accusing him of “hounding and fixing political adversaries” and losing his “mental balance”. Kejriwal did not, however, make any comment.
The BJP hit back. The party’s Delhi president, Satish Upadhyay, slammed Kejriwal for being “silent” on the cases against his party MLAs and said they should be expelled from AAP and the Assembly.
After four days of questioning, Chauhan was arrested and booked on charges of abetment to suicide, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.
At a press conference Sunday, AAP leaders cited the example of Gujarat-cadre IAS officer Pradeep Sharma’s arrest as an example of Modi’s “vendetta politics”.
Senior AAP functionary and Delhi Dialogue Commission vice-chairman Ashish Khetan, referring to Snoopgate and the alleged role of then Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah, told reporters, “The way Modi is running his reign of vindictive politics is dangerous for the country. Modi is targeting his opponents in a systematic manner, be it his action against Pradeep Sharma, other officers, AAP MLAs or against the AAP government in Delhi.”
“Can we trust the country’s administration in the hands of a person who spends his every waking moment in plotting the fixing of all his political opponents?” Khetan said.
Hours after Chauhan’s arrest, AAP leader Ashutosh tweeted that instead of praising the AAP government’s “good” work in education and health sectors, the Prime Minister is “sending AAP MLAs (to) jail”.
The party backed Chauhan and said like other MLAs, he too would get relief from the courts. “If you look at the bail orders of all the previous arrests, it is clear how the police are working on the directions of the Centre. How is it that each of our MLA is coming out clean in courts?” AAP media in-charge Deepak Bajpai said.
[Source:- The Indian Express]
