Amid AAP’s protests against the BJP over Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s arrest in connection with the now-scrapped liquor policy, Delhi Police on Monday stormed the AAP headquarters and detained party workers. Police personnel were seen barging into the AAP office and taking away some of the workers who were shouting slogans.
When contacted, DCP (Central) Sanjay Kumar Sain said no AAP worker was detained from the party office. “A few personnel entered the AAP headquarters because of a confusion that a police officer was stuck inside the premises amid the crowd,” the officer said, adding that only workers who were present at the party office’s gate were detained. “Minimum force was used to disperse the crowd,” the DCP said.
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Calling out the Central Government’s “fascist” behaviour, senior AAP leader Atishi hit out at the Prime Minister and said “Mr. Narendra Modi thinks he can put anyone in jail without any evidence or investigation”.
“As long as Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is in jail, AAP party workers will continue to protest against the tyranny of the BJP leadership,” she said.
Up in arms
On Monday morning, the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, which houses the headquarters of both AAP and the BJP as well as the Rouse Avenue court where Mr. Sisodia was to be produced later in the day, turned into a fortress with multiple layers of barricades and heavy police presence. Delhi Police, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), informed that Section 144 of the CrPC was imposed in the area even as AAP called a protest outside the BJP office. There was heavy deployment of security personnel, including the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Rapid Action Force (RAF). A riot control vehicle was also deployed at the site. DCP Sain said protesters refused to heed the police’s requests to disperse.
Around 2 p.m., despite prohibitory orders, AAP workers tried to march towards the BJP headquarters from the AAP office. This led to a scuffle with the security personnel. The police then detained AAP workers and urged them to stop their protest. The protest, however, continued.
Around 2:30 pm, Delhi Police and RAF personnel entered the AAP headquarters and detained some workers, resulting in further protests and sloganeering by the AAP leaders.
The crowd staged a protest at the DDU Marg near the AAP office. They, however, couldn’t cross the first set of barricades due to heavy police deployment. Around 300 AAP workers had gathered at the site. The police dragged some of the protesters and hit a few of them with sticks while bundling them into buses.
Later in the day, Delhi Police said 42 AAP workers, including five MLAs, were detained from the area and later released.
“Traffic was affected on DDU Marg in the carriageway from Minto Road towards ITO and vice-versa,” an officer said, adding that several barricades were put in place at different intersections and vehicular movement was allowed on permission.
Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deependra Pathak said effective and robust police arrangement was in place on the ground to maintain law and order situation.
Meanwhile, close to 23 hours after they were detained on Sunday, 36 AAP leaders, including MP Sanjay Singh, Delhi Minister Gopal Rai and others were released on Monday morning, DCP (South) Chandan Chowdhary said.
