Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and 51 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs were detained by the Delhi Police on Sunday, on their way to ‘surrender’ at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence.
The ‘surrender’ march came after the president of the Ghazipur Vegetable Market Association submitted a complaint against Mr. Sisodia, accusing him of intimidating businessmen.
Mr. Sisodia said he would surrender himself rather than be arrested in the manner of AAP MLA Dinesh Mohaniya, who was hauled away when addressing a press conference on Saturday.
Mr. Sisodia and the AAP MLAs were released within a few hours.
Earlier, talking to the media, Mr. Sisodia accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a witch-hunt against the AAP government.
Slamming the Delhi Police, Mr. Sisodia said that with the AAP MLAs in custody, the Delhi Police could now go after the rapists and murderers and bring down crime in the city.
The Delhi Police said they were forced to detain the AAP MLAs, including the deputy CM as they had assembled at the Race Course metro station around 10.30 a.m. and insisted that they be allowed to go to Mr. Modi’s official residence where they would surrender.
“As inputs about the MLAs leaving CM’s residence and approaching New Delhi were received, the police swung into damage-control mode. No arrests were made in connection with the allegations of Ghazipur complaint,” an official statement from the Delhi Police said. Justifying the manner in which the AAP’s Sangam Vihar MLA Dinesh Mohaniya was arrested, police officials during a press conference said that it was because of his “evasive” attitude.
