LG terms assault ‘unfortunate’, advises to take steps to rebuild trust

New Delhi: Terming as "unfortunate" the recent incident of alleged assault of Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal on Friday said there was no place for violence in a democratic society and that the government must take steps to rebuild the trust of its employees.

The LG's comments came after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met him, along with his cabinet colleagues, following a Delhi Police team arriving at the chief minister's residence and seizing a hard disk of the CCTV camera system installed there in connection with the alleged assault of the chief secretary by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs.

Following the incident, the bureaucrats in the Delhi government have boycotted the meetings called by ministers.

Baijal said no government could fulfil its promises to the people if its employees felt "demoralised and insecure".

"There is no place for violence in a democratic and civilised society. Steps need to be taken to remove the mistrust between the government employees and the elected government, so that the development of Delhi and public interest do not get adversely affected," an official statement from the LG's office said.

Meanwhile, the police on Friday claimed that its action (of swooping down to the chief minister's residence) came after its request for CCTV footage from Kejriwal's residence did not yield any result.

Several policemen on Friday went to Kejriwal's official residence in the Civil Lines area in New Delhi, where Chief Secretary Prakash was allegedly assaulted, in the presence of the chief minister, on the intervening night of February 19-20.