The arrest of one of its legislators on Saturday opened a new front in the Delhi government-Centre feud with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of declaring an unsaid “emergency” in the Capital by asking the police to file “false cases” against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs.
Mr. Kejriwal and his party threw their collective weight behind AAP's Sangam Vihar MLA and vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board Dinesh Mohaniya, who was arrested in the middle of a live press conference and later sent to judicial custody on charges of “sexual harassment”.
Mr. Mohaniya complained that he was taken “forcibly” and alleged that the BJP government was trying to divert attention from the probe into the murder of NDMC estate officer M.M. Khan.
‘False cases’
This was followed by a characteristically no-holds-barred attack by Mr. Kejriwal on the PM. “Modi declares emergency in Delhi. Arresting, raiding, terrorising, filing false cases against all those whom Delhi elected,” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted.
AAP leaders also addressed a press conference and said Mr. Mohaniya was the same person who had sought to expose BJP leader Sher Singh Dagar through a sting.
“Mr. Dagar had tried to bribe him to join the BJP, but Mr. Mohaniya exposed Mr. Dagar through a sting operation,” AAP leader Raghav Chadha said, adding that “Today, Dagar is free while Mohaniya has been arrested.”
The BJP alleged that the arrest of Mr. Mohaniya had exposed the “anti-women character” of AAP leaders.
“Arrest of Dinesh Mohaniya on allegations of slapping and harassing women has brought out in the open the anti—women character of the AAP leaders,” BJP Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay said.
AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the BJP was making a mockery of the law.
“Can you imagine that an MLA in Delhi, of all the places, disrobing a woman in front of hundreds of party workers? This is beyond my imagination. The allegation of molestation against Mr. Mohaniya is false and this is witch-hunting by the Modi government,” Mr. Bhardwaj told a news channel.
Mohaniya says he was “forcibly” taken, claims BJP trying to divert attention from M.M. Khan murder
