In yet another trouble for former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, he and some members of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were on Thursday booked for causing disturbances in various parts of the city and at the airport during his road show yesterday.
Kejriwal and some members of his party, including Preeti Sharma, were booked under the Bombay Police Act 37 (3). They have been charged under Sections of 188, 141 and 143 by the Mumbai Police.
The AAP leaders have been blamed for causing great inconvenience to the common public during their road show on Wednesday.
AAP convenor Kejriwal was blamed for jumping a traffic signal. The party has also faced criticism for not taking prior permission from the concerned authorities for its road show.
However, the party has hit back, saying it is an attempt to malign the party.
The AAP has blamed police for the incident and said there was no personnel to clear the chasing cameras and though Kejriwal’s auto stopped at the traffic signal, police forced it to move forward.
Reacting to the charge that Kejriwal did not take due permission for his road show, the party said, “This (commute from the airport to Churchgate railway station) was no road show or event. The misreporting that we broke some law in this journey is malicious, to the say the least.”
The AAP also pointed a finger at police for isolating Kejriwal at the Andheri Railway Station, and forcing him to enter through a wrong entrance, while party volunteers were waiting for him at another entrance with full preparation to ensure that normal Mumbai commuters were not affected.
“This led to complete mayhem as there weren’t enough police to handle the craze that set off on seeing Kejriwal, many people tried to reach out to shake hands, wish him… And the situation became quite chaotic.”
Alleging misreporting on the issue of damage to scanners at Churchgate, the party said that “defunct scanners fell due to the media frenzy and surging supporters… They were down for a few minutes and immediately put back in place by our volunteers and no damage was caused”.
“AAP is really curious as to what levies will Home Minister (RR Patil) extract from the AAP for a momentary collapse of defunct scanners when he has failed to extract any levy from parties which burn and damage public property on a routine basis,” the party said.
“We state that whatever little disturbances that were caused during Kejriwal’s visit, were due to poor handling of law and order, of the overzealous media, who risked public safety in their quest for visuals,” it added.
Kejriwal is currently touring Maharashtra, and as part of his four-day visit to the state, he has arrived in Nagpur.
