Delhi CS assault case: Police questions Kejriwal for over 3 hrs

The Delhi Police on Friday questioned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for over three hours in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in February, a senior officer said.

Emerging from the questioning by a six-member police team, Kejriwal said it is the first time a chief minister was questioned in "such a fake case".

He also termed the presence of the team a "raid" on his camp office-cum-residence at Civil Lines in New Delhi.

"It is the first time that questioning of a chief minister was done in such a fake case and a police raid was conducted," he said in a tweet minutes after the Delhi Police team left his office.

He also alleged that the only aim of the Centre and the Delhi Lt Governor was to "trouble and bother us".

"The police are not at fault. There is tremendous pressure on them to register fake cases. We will continue to cooperate with the investigating agencies in each case,” he said.

"Like other cases were dismissed, the remaining ones will also be rejected because these are fake and politically motivated," he said.

"The AAP government is doing very well in the fields of education, health, power, and water. The AAP is becoming increasingly popular among the masses. The BJP at the Centre wants to stop its works and therefore, it has sent the police and the LG after us," he alleged.

He said the "fake cases" registered against him, his ministers, MLAs and relatives would be dismissed one by one by the courts.

Kejriwal, however, said the questioning took place in a "very congenial atmosphere".

The team led by additional deputy commissioner of police-north Harendra Singh began questioning the chief minister at his camp office at 5.10 pm and finished around 8.20 pm, police said.

While some members of the team arrived at the chief minister's office around 4.40 pm to set up the recording equipment, Singh arrived at 5 pm.

During the questioning that took place in the drawing room, two lawyers of the Aam Aadmi Party supremo were also present.

"We questioned him for three hours. He was cooperative during the investigation, but at the same time he evaded many of the questions. The replies to some of the questions were not satisfactory. If required, we will again question him in the case," said the officer.

The proceedings of the questioning were video-recorded by the police, but a copy of the recording will not be provided to Kejriwal because the law does not allow it, Singh said.

The officer said that they may also question deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, if required.

Police sources said some questions put to Kejriwal included the decision to convene the late night meeting with Prakash, the sequence of events that led to the assault and the trigger for the incident.

During investigation, police had found that the assault was pre-planned and Kejriwal's private secretary Bibhav Kumar had directed a party volunteer to call the MLAs.

The chief minister was also questioned about whether he had any idea about it.

AAP leader Ashish Khetan slammed the police for questioning Kejriwal for such a long duration.

"A 5 member Delhi Police team has been questioning @ArvindKejriwal for the last 3 hours. What is his crime? Has he done a scam? Did he steal public money? Did he order fake encounters? Did he orchestrate riots? Did he give bank loans to his cronies? (sic)" he posted on Twitter.

Prakash was allegedly assaulted during a meeting at Kejriwal's official residence on February 19. Police said the chief minister was present when the alleged assault took place.

Kejriwal had agreed to join the probe yesterday following a notice by the Delhi Police on May 16.

He had demanded he be allowed to video record the proceedings. However, the police had said the proceedings will be video recorded, but the chief minister would not be allowed to do so.

The police have already questioned 11 AAP MLAs present at the chief minister's residence for the meeting. Two of the party MLAs -- Amantullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal --were arrested in the case.

Last month, Kejriwal's private secretary Bibhav Kumar and a party volunteer Vivek Kumar were also questioned in connection with the case.

Kejriwal, his former advisor V K Jain and Sisodia were also present in the meeting. Jain was also questioned in the case.

On February 23, a police team had examined the CCTV system installed at the chief minister's residence in the Civil Lines area and seized the hard disk. The forensic report on the hard disk is still awaited.

The alleged assault on the chief secretary had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats.