Arvind Kejriwal Claims Cop Who Manhandled AAP Leader Misbehaved With Him

A Delhi police officer who had allegedly manhandled former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on the premises of a court in the city has now misbehaved with him, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has claimed.

The AAP chief said this in an application filed in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court in which he has sought the removal of the officer from his security cordon.

In the application, Mr Kejriwal – who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy case – has claimed that Assistant Commissioner of Police AK Singh had misbehaved with him while he was being brought to the court for his hearing in the remand application moved by the agency earlier on Friday. The nature of the alleged misbehaviour is not yet known.

Mr Singh is the same cop who was accused of restraining Mr Sisodia by the neck on the premises of the same court last year when reporters were asking him a question. The act was caught on video and Mr Sisodia had filed a written complaint. The Delhi Police had denied any wrongdoing and said the action shown in the video was necessary for security and that it was against the law for any accused to give statements to the media.

The police had also moved an application in the court, seeking its permission to produce Mr Sisodia only via video-conferencing. This, they had claimed, was necessary as producing him physically created “chaos” with AAP supporters and mediapersons gathering in the corridors of the court.

While Mr Sisodia was taken into custody in the Delhi liquor policy case in February last year, Mr Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on Thursday night, becoming the first sitting chief minister to face such an action. The AAP chief was produced in the Rouse Avenue court, which granted the agency his custody for seven days.

The financial crime fighting agency, which is investigating the money laundering angle in the case, had sought Mr Kejriwal’s custody for 10 days and said it needed to confront him with the other accused.

The agency has claimed that the chief minister and the AAP had received kickbacks in exchange for favours and that he was the “kingpin” and a key conspirator in the alleged scam.

The total proceeds of the crime, according to the ED, are Rs 600 crore. It has claimed that the Delhi liquor policy provided a profit margin of 12% for wholesalers and nearly 185% for retailers. Of the 12%, six was to be recovered from wholesalers as kickbacks for AAP leaders and a lobby called the South Group allegedly gave Rs 100 crore in advance to another accused in the case, Vijay Nair, who was linked to the ruling party in Delhi.