After Amanatullah Khan's arrest on Sunday, 10 AAP MLAs in all have been arrested by Delhi Police.
As the Aam Aadmi Party gears up to fight assembly polls in Akali-BJP bastions Punjab, Goa and Gujarat next year, the party's lawmakers in Delhi are facing arrests –largely on charges of molesting or misbehaving with women. Sunday's case was similar as the Delhi Police arrested the party's Okhla MLA for allegedly molesting and threatening a 35-year-old woman.
Amanatullah Khan, was arrested by Zarnia Nagar police, while a case was registered against Khan under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman or eve teasing) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Jamia Nagar police station in south Delhi.
The alleged incident took place on July 10 when the complainant went to the residence of the AAP MLA in south Delhi's Batla House locality to complain about poor electricity supply in the area. Khan's is the third arrest of an AAP lawmaker by Delhi Police in a month. On July 8, party legislator from Deoli Prakash Jarwal was arrested for allegedly misbehaving with a woman. Jarwal was also arrested in May 2014 for allegedly hitting a junior engineer of Delhi Jal Board. On June 26, AAP MLA Dinesh Mohaniya was arrested by the Delhi police during an ongoing press conference, for allegedly misbehaving with a woman and slapping a senior citizen.
Ever since the AAP came to power, its lawmakers –starting from Somnath Bharti, Jitendra Tomar, Akhilesh Tripathi, Manoj Kumar, Commando Surinder Singh to Mahendra Yadav –have been embroiled in cases.
The AAP had won Delhi with a thumping majority in the 2015 elections. The party won 67 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi. However, the frequency of cases against its Delhi lawmakers and their subsequent arrests is a setback for the party, with fewer months left for the assembly polls in states where the party is coming up as a major force.
Senior AAP leaders say that arrests are directly linked with the state elections next year and that they expect more arrests as the dates draw closer.
"It is the same strategy that Modi had applied in Gujarat; fictitious cases against dissenting voices. This clearly shows that the BJP is scared of losing their bastions," AAP leader Ashutosh told dna. He, however, said the arrests won't affect the party's image in the upcoming assembly elections as most people know that the lawmakers are deliberately being victimised.
"Both in Goa and Gujarat, people are aware of the reality," he said, adding that in the next few months, the party would continue to aggressively campaign in the election-bound states to highlight the different issues faced by the AAP government in Delhi and their achievements.
Party leader Sanjay Singh, who is spearheading AAP's campaign in Punjab said the arrest spree of AAP legislators will actually prove to be counter-productive for the BJP in the poll-bound states, where it is already on a slippery ground on a host of issues.
Talking to dna, Singh said he makes it a point to mention about the false cases against the party's legislators and the alleged roadblocks created by the Modi government in all party campaigns in Punjab.
"Even in today's case, a sting video has shown that the woman was pressured by the local SHO to name Amanatullah. Even in MLA Naresh Yadav's case, we heard an arrest warrant is being brought out. Voters are aware of the reality and social media is also an important tool to spread the right message to the people," Singh said.
Meanwhile, the BJP said that the AAP has become an organisation of criminals and that their attitude towards women and the cases in which they are involved proves the point. BJP Delhi chief Satish Upadhaya said AAP blames Prime Minister Narendra Modi for every arrest of their MLAs instead of introspecting in them first.
AAP legislators arrested
Amanatullah Khan – molesting and threatening a woman
Prakash Jarwal –misbehaving with a woman
Dinesh Mohaniya –misbehaving with a woman and a senior citizen
Somnath Bharti –domestic violence
Jitendra Tomar –faking education degree
Akhilesh Tripathi –rioting, criminal intimidation
Manoj Kumar –forgery in land grabbing case
Commando Surinder Singh –assaulting govt employee
Mahendra Yadav –rioting, assaulting govt employee
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