New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi has taken on the state’s police force – controlled by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs – over what they perceive to be “shocking misbehavior” with jailed former minister Manish Sisoda.
Tweeting a video from the Rouse Avenue Court, where Delhi’s former deputy chief minister was being produced Tuesday, AAP leader and Cabinet member Atishi demanded that the officer concerned be immediately suspended.
In the video, Sisodia is approached by journalists as he is walked by a large police contingent during a court appearance.
Reporters ask him about the ongoing confrontation between the AAP government and the Centre over who controls the state’s bureaucrats.
He is invited to comment on a central ordinance Friday that bypasses a recent Supreme Court verdict which said Delhi’s bureaucrats were answerable to its government.
Sisodia is heard saying: “Modiji has become very arrogant. He doesn’t believe in democracy.”
A police officer, who was trying to push back the media, was seen at this point hauling Sisodia by his neck.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reposted the video asking whether the police had the right to misbehave in this manner with his former colleague. He questioned if this behaviour was being dictated by “someone above”.
The Delhi Police retorted hours later, dismissing the talk of police misbehavior as propaganda. It also said the action was imperative from a security point of view.
“It is against the law to issue statements to the media by an accused in judicial custody,” the police tweeted in Hindi.
Manish Sisodia is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate for alleged financial malfeasance in the now-withdrawn Delhi Excise Policy, 2021-22. He was arrested on 26 February.