New Delhi : Police on Sunday arrested AAP legislator Amanatullah Khan on charges of threatening a woman but Delhi’s ruling party rubbished the “spurious charge”.
Additional Commissioner of Police Rajeev Ranjan told IANS that Khan was arrested after the woman alleged he was threatening her and also trying to manipulate the evidence.
“We will produce him in a court,” Ranjan added.
Khan is the 10th Aam Aadmi Party legislator to be arrested since it swept to power in February 2015 after crushing the BJP. In all but one case, the AAP has defended the legislators and accused the Narendra Modi government of vendetta.
A 35-year-old woman had filed a case against Khan on July 20 for allegedly threatening her with dire consequences. On Saturday, Khan filed a counter case.
Khan has claimed he was not even in Delhi when he is supposed to have threatened the woman.
The charges against Khan included criminal intimidation and insulting the modesty of a woman, officer Ranjan said.
The alleged incident took place on July 10 when the woman reportedly went to Khan’s residence in south Delhi’s Batla House locality after speaking to him on telephone to complain about poor power supply in Jasola area.
One of the legislators’s supporters there allegedly abused the woman and threatened her with dire consequences, the woman said in her complaint. She said the supporter claimed he was abusing her on Khan’s orders.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “Just in. Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) arrests one more AAP MLA…
“(Gujarat Chief Minister) Anandiben (Patel) sends Dalits and Patidars to jail on fake cases in Gujarat. Modiji sends people in Delhi to jail on fake cases. Delhi and Gujarat will now fight together,” Kejriwal said.
The AAP, which released a secretly shot video of the woman who is heard saying she was told by the SHO to throw the rape charge at the legislator, said the complainant was acting under police pressure.
“The SHO is tutoring the complainant to add the rape allegation,” AAP leader Saurab Bhardwaj said.
Added another party leader, Ashish Khetan: “Another MLA arrested on spurious charges. History will record the Modi rule as the darkest time for democracy post Emergency.
“If Modi thinks the spectre of imprisonment and police torture will weaken the resolve of the AAP, then he is sadly mistaken.”
The AAP and the Modi government have been feuding over issues of governance related to the national capital, the acrimony getting more and more ugly in recent months.
Delhi Police reports to the central, not the AAP government.
After Khan’s arrest, scores of AAP supporters staged a noisy protest outside the Jamia Nagar police station seeking his release. They said the legislator had been framed.
The Bhartiya Janata Party, however, accused the AAP of having “anti-women character”.
“This party has anti-women character and is filled with criminal minded people who don’t respect women,” BJP leader Satish Upadhyay told IANS.