Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will lead his Aam Aadmi Party’s protest march on Sunday outside BJP headquarters against the arrest of his close aide Bibhav Kumar and other party leaders.
All the AAP MLAs and MPs will participate in the protest outside the ruling party’s headquarters in Delhi, Kejriwal has announced on Saturday.
Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said ”the BJP should stop the drama of arresting AAP leaders one after another and should put them all in jail together”.
“All our big leaders were arrested. Arvind Kejriwal is out on bail for 20 days but they are conspiring every day and putting cases against us. If the PM hates the AAP and if he thinks he will finish our party by putting the leaders in jail, he is committing a mistake,” he said.
“Today, we will go to BJP HQ at 12 PM, they should stop this drama of putting our leaders in jail one after another and arrest us all together… Police never allowed us to march. What can we expect from Delhi Police? They are doing the job of the central government and if they don’t follow their orders, either they’ll be transferred or suspended or false cases will be framed against them,” Bharadwaj added.
While the AAP is preparing for the protest march, the Delhi Police has said that they will not allow Kejriwal and his party leaders to march towards the BJP headquarters.
“No permission has been sought and they will not be allowed to march (towards BJP headquarters),” the Delhi Police said.
Meanwhile, security has been tightened outside the BJP headquarters in view of the Aam Aadmi Party’s call to hold a protest march. Police have placed barricades outside the BJP office in a bid to stop the protest March by AAP leaders.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has also closed entry and exit at ITO metro station in view of the AAP protest march.
The call to hold a protest.march was given by Kejriwal on Saturday following the arrest of his close aide in the Swati Maliwal assault case.
Ms Maliwal, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from the AAP, had alleged that Kejriwal’s PA Bibhav Kumar had assaulted her at the residence of Delhi CM on May 13 when she had gone to meet the chief minister.
However, the AAP claimed that Ms Maliwal has colluded with the BJP and was made to “hatch the conspiracy” with an old ACB case as leverage. She wanted to frame Kejriwal at the behest of the BJP, the AAP claimed.
The party has also released a purported video of Ms Maliwal being escorted out of Delhi CM’s residence. It claimed that Maliwal wouldn’t have walked normally if assaulted in a manner she alleged.
Another purported video released by a news agency showed Ms Maliwal threatening security personnel at Mr Kejriwal’s residence and abusing Bibhav Kumar.