The 28-year-old man who hurled a shoe at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seconds into his press briefing here on Saturday was allegedly also linked to the ink attack on him during a ‘thanksgiving’ function at a city stadium earlier this year, it has emerged.
Hours into the incident, a video of Ved Prakash, who claimed he belonged to the Aam Aadmi Sena, which is a purported splinter group of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) based in Punjab — showing him admitting to having handed the ink thrown at Mr. Kejriwal by a Delhi resident Bhawna Arora who was later arrested for the deed — went viral on social media.
Prakash was behind a sting operation that unearthed a “scam in the issuance CNG stickers” at petrol dealerships during the trial phase of the scheme between January 1 and January 15.
Meanwhile, responding to unofficial jabs from the political opposition about “another shoe throwing incident which launched a political career” Mr. Kejriwal’s party colleague and Rajouri MLA Jarnail Singh – who hurled a shoe at then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in 2009 – said there were no parallels between the two incidents.
Talking to The Hindu , Mr. Singh said that his reason for indulging in such an act was to send a message against a grave injustice during the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and was far from being any publicity stint, something he accuses Ved Prakash of.
“Those responsible (refers to Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler) for the riots were becoming ministers and our wait for justice was growing agonisingly longer. Widows and orphans were denied of what was rightfully theirs, a fair trial. Amidst all that, Mr. Chidambaram makes a statement that he was happy that his friend was exonerated. My response was in protest to that,” said Mr. Singh.
Mr. Singh credited his act to the Congress withdrawing the poll tickets for the two leaders. Asked about Saturday’s incident, he said the issue raised was trivial in comparison.
He further added that politics in his life happened much later and he put his journalistic career at stake to raise his voice for the victims.
The Rajouri MLA had hurled a shoe at then Home Minister P. Chidambaram
in 2009
