Delhi's lawmakers or law breakers: AAP MLAs face cases of riot

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been in power in the Capital for less than three months. But the Delhi Police is already investigating its senior leaders, including six of its MLAs, for cases of assault, rioting, abetment to suicide and buying votes during the assembly elections.

A spokesperson of the AAP, however, refuted all the allegations against the MLAs and said that the cases had been registered by Delhi Police ‘under pressure’.

“The Delhi Police is being used as a political weapon against the AAP, which is evident with the proceedings of the farmer suicide case. With the current situation we suspect many such similar instances to come forward in future. We are prepared for them and will continue to fight for public cause,” the spokesperson said.

Special CP (law and order), Deepak Mishra, however, said: “We always investigate a case based on its merit.”

Delhi Police have been investigating six sitting MLAs of the AAP, including Naresh Balyan, (Uttam Nagar) Ram Niwas Goel (Shahdara), Sanjeev Jha (Burari) , Akhilesh Pati Tripathi (Model Town), Manoj Kumar (Kondali) and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar). Other senior AAP leaders present at the party’s Kisan rally in Jantar Mantar are also being probed for their role in instigating the farmer to commit suicide.

On January 31, the crime branch had seized an estimated 500 cartons with more than 8,000 bottles of illicit liquor from a storage facility in Uttam Nagar, days before the Delhi Assembly polls. Sources had then claimed that the storage facility was allegedly owned by a relative of Balyan.

Similarly, Delhi Police is also probing Goel for rioting, causing hurt and trespassing at a builder’s house in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar on February 6.

A case against MLAs Jha and Tripathi was registered at the Burari police station after the men instigated a mob which led to more than a dozen police personnel being injured.

Earlier, police also registered a FIR against AAP MLA from Kondali, Manoj Kumar and a BJP worker after a clash. Police said the fight broke out in the lane outside Kumar’s house in Mayur Vihar Phase-III. While the AAP MLA has been booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, a case of hurt and wrongful restraint was registered against the BJP worker.