AAP protests near BJP headquarters against Sanjay Singh’s arrest

NEW DELHI, Oct 10: Scores of Aam Aadmi Party workers and supporters today protested near the BJP headquarters here against the arrest of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy case.

The AAP also accused the Delhi Police of using force against protesters and claimed a worker was badly injured in police action.

“Party workers were protesting peacefully and yet the police used force against them. When they protested against this, the police resorted to lathi-charge, resulting in serious injuries to many workers. Some workers got severally injured after being thrashed by police batons. Afterwards, the police detained hundreds of workers,” the party said in a statement.

Police, however, said they detained some of the protesters who were later released.

Raising slogans like ‘Sanjay Singh Sher hai, Sanjay Singh ko riha karo’ (Sanjay Singh is lion, release Sanjay Singh), ‘Loktantra ki hatya band karo’ (stop murdering democracy), the protesters tried to march towards the BJP headquarters.

“The BJP has arrested Sanjay Singh in a bogus case because they know that now it is difficult to stop the AAP. The BJP is misusing institutions like the ED and CBI for its electoral gains. The people of the country are well aware of this. Now, they have made up their minds to throw BJP out of power. The BJP is going to suffer a crushing defeat in the upcoming assembly elections in five states,” AAP Rajya Sabha MP and National General Secretary Sandeep Pathak said.

AAP MLA Kuldeep Kumar said the police has beaten up our workers brutally even when they were protesting peacefully. “Many people received head injuries. They even thrashed women.”

A protester, who suffered injuries, said he was hit by a policeman during the protest. The police, however, denied the charge.

In a related development, the members of AAP’s legal cell in Delhi and Haryana marched from the Patiala House to Supreme Court and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India.

“The memorandum submitted to the Chief Justice of India has signatures of 17,500 lawyers and also contains issues related to the community. The centre wants to change IPC, Evidence Act and CrPC. We have been running a campaign to oppose it. Whatever is happening in the country at the moment is not right,” said AAP legal cell president Sanjeev Nasiar.

A special court here on Tuesday extended till October 13 the ED custody of Singh, who was arrested in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) now has three more days to interrogate Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, in custody. (PTI)