New Delhi: The road to courtroom justice in India is a long and winding one that entails heavy investment, both in terms of time and money. Consider the repertoire of cases filed against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, the deputy CM and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers, MPs and MLAs.
Of the 140 cases against the party analyzed by News18.com, only one has resulted in conviction while 72 have ended in acquittals, discharges or settlements. Of the remaining, 39 are pending and the rest have either been stayed, or are cases where the charge-sheet has not been filed yet.
AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal, along with two AAP supporters, are the only ones to have been convicted by Patiala House Court. They have been held guilty of assaulting cops and damaging public property.
Do such statistics then mean that members of the party have been barraged with frivolous legal suits in an attempt at harassment?
To illustrate, cases filed against Kejriwal and Sisodia, along with those filed against AAP ministers Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot and other AAP MLAs, have been described in detail.
CM Arvind Kejriwal
Overall, 30 cases, both civil and criminal, have been filed across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Guwahati and Uttar Pradesh.
Of these, 12 are criminal defamation cases in which courts have acquitted or discharged Kejriwal in four cases. In four other cases, issues were settled after apologies were tendered. And the remaining four are pending.
He has been acquitted in six out of eight criminal cases filed by the Delhi Police where charges include rioting, criminal assault on public servants, criminal intimidation, giving inflammatory speeches and conducting rallies without permission.
In UP, three cases were registered over charges of giving speeches that violate election law and for conducting rallies without permission. All three were stayed.
In all four FIRs have been filed against Kejriwal — three for conducting a dharna in front of Raj Bhavan in 2014 and one for allegedly assaulting the Delhi Chief Secretary. All of these are pending in various courts.
An election petition that was filed in the Delhi High Court regarding electoral spending during the 2013 Assembly elections is pending and two charges filed for cases concerning protests are also pending.
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia
In total, 12 cases have been registered against Sisodia. He has been discharged in two cases where allegations involved defacement of public property. In six cases involving allegations of rioting, Sisodia has been discharged in four.
Two are criminal defamation cases where he has been named as the co-accused, along with Arvind Kejriwal; one has been settled and one is pending.
The case involving the alleged assault on the Delhi Chief Secretary is pending as is the one registered while protesting in front of Raj Bhavan along with Kejriwal.
AAP Ministers
In total, four cases have been registered against cabinet ministers Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot for charges involving rioting and defacement of public property. All three have been discharged in all the cases.
One other case has been registered by the CBI against Jain for charges of money laundering, which is pending.
In October last year, the Income Tax department raided the premises of Gahlot, but no case has been filed yet.
AAP MPs
An FIR was filed against MP Sanjay Singh on the basis of an opinion tendered by Additional Solicitor General of India Sanjay Jain that his alleged action amounted to “assault with intent to outrage the modesty” of a woman. During the investigation, it was found that Singh was not the person who committed the assault. And independent of the alleged act, no other case could be made against him.
Additionally, the court also held that Singh was in fact the victim as he was slapped by the complainant without any provocation and also that there was no retaliation on his part. Consequently, Singh was discharged.
AAP MLAs
A total of three cases for charges ranging from possession of illicit liquor, violation of moral code of conduct, assault/ instigation of criminal force and threatening a public servant were registered against Naresh Balyan, the MLA from Uttam Nagar. He has been discharged in all three cases.
Manoj Kumar, the MLA from Kondli, is facing six cases for extortion and criminal defamation. In a case related to criminal defamation and two cases related to extortion, he has been acquitted/discharged. Three cases are pending.
Amancharge sheetn, the MLA from Okhla, is facing 12 cases. Out of these, chargesheet has been filed in seven cases wherein Khan has been discharged in three cases. The other four are pending.
Vijender Garg, MLA from Rajender Nagar, faced three cases for reasons ranging from holding an election rally without permission to violation of model code of conduct and defacement of public property. He was discharged in all three.
A case was registered against Visesh Ravi, MLA from Karol Bagh, alleging that he compelled the complainant to make donations to the AAP. The court held that it appeared Ravi had been implicated in the case as a “counter blast” to his complaint made to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies against Maa Jhandelwali Co-Operative Urban Thrift of which the complainant was a member. Ravi was discharged.
Alka Lamba, MLA from Chandini Chowk, was accused of forcefully entering a private store, using force against the policeman present there and causing damage to the bill counter. The court dismissed the case citing that the offence is not a serious one and is not against society and also that Lamba is a public representative and was present at the store for a good cause.
A case was filed against Shiv Charan Goel, MLA from Moti Nagar, over allegations of displaying posters on public property. The court discharged him citing “inadmissible evidence” and the fact that the chagesheet was filed “without any proper investigation.”
Numerous other cases have been filed against AAP MLAs that have, once again, resulted largely in acquittals.
Rishikesh Kumar, secretary of AAP’s legal cell, expressed severe concerns while also referencing political motivations. "The cases against AAP are a classic example of how police are being used by the Modi-Shah government in a well-choreographed and maliciously designed strategy to intimidate Arvind Kejriwal and his team.”
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