Delhi High Court seeks status report on attack outside CM Kejriwal’s residence

The Bench noted that security was inadequate to control the ‘unruly crowd’ that had gathered on Wednesday during a protest.

The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the police to submit a status report on the investigation into the alleged attack and vandalism outside the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a protest against his remarks on the movie The Kashmir Files.

A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla directed the Delhi police to explain the “bandobast” (security arrangement) at the Chief Minister’s residence, noting that it was inadequate to control the “unruly crowd” that had gathered on Wednesday.

“We saw the video. It is an unruly crowd. Some took law into their hands. There is element of fear sought to be created. That is evident. Police force was inadequate and was outnumbered,” the Bench observed.

The court, which was hearing a petition by AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident, allowed the Delhi police to submit its status report in a sealed cover.

During the hearing, the police, represented by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, said that it had taken cognisance of the incident and registered an FIR. Mr. Jain said that all the evidence, including the CCTV footage from cameras around the Chief Minister’s residence, as well as the arterial roads, would be preserved.

Mr. Jain said the police was taking all steps to address the safety concerns and that eight persons had already been arrested in the case.

Mr. Bhardwaj, in his petition, alleged that the attack and vandalization appeared to have been carried out with Delhi police’s “tacit complicity’”