Cops to quiz Manish Sisodia in CS case

New Delhi: After questioning chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi police on Wednesday sent a notice to deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, asking him to join the investigation in the case of alleged assault of chief secretary Anshu Prakash in February. Mr Sisodia will be questioned on Friday at 11 am.

The deputy chief minister was sent the notice on Wednesday to join the probe, days after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was questioned for over three hours in connection with the matter, police said.

Mr Prakash was allegedly attacked during a meeting at Mr Kejriwal’s official residence on February 19. The police said the chief minister was present when the alleged assault took place. The police have already questioned 11 AAP MLAs present at the chief minister’s residence for the meeting.

Two of the party MLAs — Amantullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal — were arrested in the case. The MLAs were later sent to 14-day judicial custody, which was further extended by 14 days. Later both the leaders were granted bail by the Delhi high court.

Last month, Mr Kejriwal’s private secretary Bibhav Kumar and party volunteer Vivek Kumar were also questioned in connection with the case.  Mr Kejriwal, his former advisor V.K. Jain and Sisodia were also present in the meeting. Mr Jain was also questioned in the case.

On February 23, a police team had examined the CCTV system installed at the chief minister’s residence in the Civil Lines area and seized the hard disk. The forensic report on the hard disk is still awaited. The alleged assault on the chief secretary had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats.

A Delhi court had on Tuesday sought the response of the city police on an application by Mr Kejriwal seeking a copy of a video and his statement recorded by the probe agency on May 18 in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in February.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal issued a notice to the Delhi Police and directed the investigation officer (IO) and the DCP to file a response to Mr Kejriwal’s plea by May 29. It also directed the IO to be present before the court.

In his application, moved through advocate B S Joon, Mr Kejriwal said that after the proceedings on the day, the police made a statement before the media that Mr Kejriwal had evaded certain questions by not giving proper answers, which was “fully incorrect”.