Chief Secretary assault case: Kejriwal, Sisodia summoned as accused by Delhi court

In a fresh twist to Delhi Chief Secretary assault case, CM Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and 11 others have been summoned as accused by Delhi's Patiala court. If convicted, the maximum jail term is of 7 years. 

They have to appear before the Court on October 25. Earlier  Delhi police named Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his Deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 other AAP MLAs in their charge sheet for allegedly assaulting Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on February 19.

The alleged attack during a late-night meeting at Kejriwal's house had led to a six-month face-off between his ministers and bureaucrats. Prakash had alleged that he was attacked by MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal. Police sources alleged Kejriwal, Sisodia and the others had conspired to threaten the top official, obstructed him in his duty and caused hurt. They have also been accused of wrongful confinement, intentional insult, abetment and unlawful assembly. Khan and Jarwal had been arrested soon after the alleged assault. They are out on bail.

In May, the police was at Kejriwal's house for three hours for questioning and searches. The 13 MLAs named in the 1,300-page charge sheet are: Kejriwal, Sisodia, Khan, Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania. The police have questioned all of them.

The Chief Secretary had alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLAs in the presence of Kejriwal. However, in a joint statement, all Delhi Ministers Gopal Rai, Satyendar Jain, Kailash Gahlot, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Imran Hussain called the charge sheet "bogus" and "politically motivated".