The AAP MLA from Vikaspuri, Mr Mahendra Yadav, was on Friday arrested by the Delhi police for allegedly assaulting a government official during a protest against the police for not lodging a rape case.
Mr Yadav has become the sixth legislator from chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party to be arrested.
According to information, Mr Yadav was on Thursday staging a protest in West Delhi’s Nihal Vihar along with his supporters against the Delhi police for not lodging a rape case involving a three-year-old girl.
A police official said Mr Yadav had provoked the mob to damage government vehicles and to clash with the police. The police claimed after being provoked by Mr Yadav, the mob went on a rampage and attacked the cops and damaged public property. The police claimed that the mob had tried to set several vehicles on fire. One of the cops was assaulted during the protest.
The mob was demanding immediate arrest of the accused, a neighbour of the victim. However, joint commissioner of police, southwest district, Dependra Pathak said the alleged culprit had been arrested by the police much before the protest.
He said a case of rioting and arson, assault on public servant, wrongful restraint and damage to public property was lodged with the Nihal Vihar police station on Thursday night for the violence during the protest.
“Mr Yadav was arrested at around 12 pm on Friday. He was produced before Tis Hazari court that remanded him to one-day police custody,” Mr Pathak said.
The official claimed that someone had spread a rumour that the police had refused to arrest the accused of raping the three-year-old girl.
“This rumour led to a protest that was being led by Mr Yadav. We had tried to pacify them but they were not willing to listen to us,” the police said.
Mr Yadav is the sixth AAP legislator to be arrested. Earlier, MLAs Akhilesh Tripathi, Somnath Bharti, Surinder Singh, Manoj Kumar and former law minister Jitender Singh Tomar were arrested on various charges. Reacting to Mr Yadav’s arrest, AAP Delhi convener Dilip Pandey tweeted, “Delhi police busy again arresting AAP MLA instead of ensuring Delhi women safety despite multiple warnings from courts.”
“MLA Mahendra Yadav arrested, for what He was there where public was protesting against rape of a girl child Is it wrong to ask for justice ” he said.
The AAP leader also took a dig at the Centre saying it was not providing funds to the Delhi police to install CCTV cameras. “Finance Ministry has no fund for security camera. Delhi still a rape capital. Court slammed (it) multiple times, but who cares. DP (Delhi Police) busy hunting AAP MLAs,” he tweeted.
