"Direct Attack On Democracy": AAP MLA Moves Delhi High Court Seeking SIT Probe Into Vandalization At CM Arvind Kejriwal's Residence

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj has approached the Delhi High Court seeking an SIT investigation into the incident of attack and vandalization of official residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday, alleging it to be done by "goons of the Bhartiya Janata Party" under the garb of protest.

Calling it a direct attack on democracy, the petition moved through Advocate Bharat Gupta seeks an independent, fair and time bound criminal investigation with respect to the attack and its perpetrators as also directions for ensuring the security of Chief Minister and his residence, in future.

The plea alleges that on March 30, "several BJP goons" in the garb of a protest, launched an attack on the official residence of the CM, videos and photographs of which show that such persons "casually walked through the security cordon maintained by Delhi Police, kicked and broke the boom barrier, broke the CCTVs cameras with lathis, threw paint on the gate of the residence and almost climbed over the gate, while Delhi Police personnel simply looked on, doing little to stop the protestors."

The plea therefore states that while the petitioner supports the right to protest peacefully even if the same is against the Delhi Government, violence cannot and ought not to be permitted.

"In this case, the violence was especially egregious as it was directed towards the Delhi CM and his family. It was meant to subdue, by the use of force, the highest elected official in NCT of Delhi and therefore the elected Government of Delhi. This was a direct attack on democracy," the plea states.

The plea further avers the Delhi Police completely abdicated its duty, without any regard for the fact that they were protecting an elected constitutional functionary who was given Z+ security by Delhi Police itself.

"It thus appears that Delhi Police was hand in glove with the goons as the goons are members of the ruling party in the Central Government, which has absolute control over Delhi Police through the Ministry of Home Affairs (Respondent No.2)," the plea adds.

The plea states that even in the past, there was an attack on the residence of the Deputy Chief Minister in 2020 by BJP Goons, where also the Delhi Police did not take any steps to stop the attackers and failed to take any concrete criminal action against them.

"Therefore, given the conduct of the Delhi Police till now and the fact that the Delhi Police is under the control of the Central Government, where BJP is in power, it is strongly apprehended that the Delhi Police will neither carry out an independent and fair criminal investigation against the BJP goons who attacked the Delhi CM's residence on 30.03.2022 nor will it take any disciplinary action against its own officers who were responsible for maintaining the Z+ security cordon outside the Delhi CM's residence," the plea avers.

Stating that attacks on elected officials are becoming a routine affair, the plea states that if the perpetrators of the attack are not brought to justice and if responsibility is not fixed on the errant officers of the Delhi Police, then the public will lose confidence in the rule of law and will lose its faith in the ability of the police to protect it against political violence.

Case Title: SAURABH BHARDWAJ v. DELHI POLICE & ANR