While the 14 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers arrested overnight for protests in the national capital were granted bail by the Patiala House Court on Thursday, party leaders Ashutosh and Shazia Ilmi were taken for interrogation at the Parliament Street police station. The two leaders have been served a notice under Section 160 of the CRPC and have been asked to join the police investigation into the protests outside the BJP office in Delhi.
Ashutosh has assured that as a ‘law abiding citizen’, he will cooperate with the police in its investigation. He also appealed the party supporters not to resort to violence.
Stepping out after her interrogation, Ilmi claimed that she told the police that she was not involved in any rioting. “I questioned police on what basis they have registered FIR against me. Have they seen me pelting stone there,” Ilmi said. She also accused the Delhi Police of targeting the AAP and wondered why no action was being taken against BJP activists.
Ashutosh and Shazia have been served a notice under Section 160 of the CRPC and have been asked to join the police investigation in the case.
“Yesterday, we got to see the discrimination of Delhi Police, which joined BJP to disperse AAP supporters staging silent protest. Police could not see bricks, stones and chairs being thrown from the inside of BJP Headquarter. They could only see people much later retaliating. Police were protecting BJP supporters,” Ilmi claimed.
Alarmed by the attack, the Delhi Election Commission has served a notice to the AAP for alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct, asking whether it took permission for the protest outside the BJP headquarters in the national capital.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police, in its report submitted to the EC, has stated that the AAP workers incited violence and BJP workers retaliated. They have also stated that the AAP members did not take permission to stage a protest.
The FIR against Ilmi and Ashutosh and other AAP volunteers, was lodged at the Parliament Street Police station on Wednesday night. Police had initially detained 33 people out of which 14 were arrested late in the night while others were allowed to go.
“All those identifiable and present at the protest site have been named in the FIR,” a senior Delhi Police official said.
