New Delhi: A woman tried to attack Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with ink when he was addressing a thanksgiving rally after the “success” of his government’s odd-even road-rationing experiment at Chhatrasal Stadium here on Sunday. This prompted fu-rious reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party, which termed the incident as a conspiracy hatched by the BJP.
Read: Kejriwal ink-attack: Woman gets bail, says has proof of scam
In what is being seen as a security lapse, the woman at about 5 pm went up the dais where Mr Kejriwal was addressing a gathering of about 5,000 people and threw ink, and some papers and a CD at the CM. Several drops of ink also landed on Mr Kejriwal’s face. “Let her go, leave her. Whenever something good happens in Delhi, this is what happens,” said Mr Kejriwal as security personnel rushed to detain the woman. She was immediately whi-sked away for questioning.
The woman, who appeared to be in her 20s, came close to the lectern when Mr Kejriwal was delivering his speech and showed some papers to him. After some time, she threw ink at the CM but could not reach him though stains could be seen on the lectern.
The melee disrupted Mr Kejriwal’s speech for about seven minutes. The rally was organised by the Delhi government to thank people of the city for making the road-rationing scheme a success. Later, Mr Kejriwal asked those around him to look into the grievances of the woman.
Read: Allegations of conspiracy 'baseless': Delhi Police on ink attack
The woman, identified as Bhavna Arora, claimed that she was a member of the Aam Aadmi Sena’s Punjab unit, a splinter group of the AAP. She accused Mr Kejriwal of involvement with the CNG Fitness scam. “I have proof of his involvement in the CNG scam,” she said after the attack.
Reacting sharply to the incident, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia accused the police of not showing any urgency in dealing with the episode. “What was the Delhi police doing? It was busy watching the show. It was ink, but it could have been acid or even a bomb. This is a well-thought conspiracy to attack Arvind Kejriwal by the BJP,” Mr Sisodia said at a press briefing shortly after the incident. The Delhi police comes under Centre’s jurisdiction — an issue which has been a flashpoint between the BJP and the AAP in the past.
Angry over the ink attack, Mr Sisodia also attacked the BJP and blamed the whole drama on the party. “There was no security provided by the Delhi police, the BJP has scripted the whole ink attack. The BJP can also try to murder AAP MLAs.”
Reacting to Mr Sisodia’s statements, Delhi BJP legislators Vijender Gupta and O.P. Sharma said this was a drama written by the AAP and claimed the BJP had nothing to do with it. But BJP leader Nalin Kohli condemned the attack, saying such incidents have no place in the civil society. He said a proper investigation should be conducted to find out whether this was an individual effort or a group was behind the incident.
The woman accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government of being involved in a CNG scam.
The alleged CNG scam had happened under the previous Congress dispensation and the Kejriwal government had recently set up a commission of inquiry to probe it. Citing jurisdictional issues, the Centre had declared the probe as illegal, but an unfazed AAP government decided to continue with it.
On the AAP’s allegations, Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said the incident could well be a case of the “activist’s frustration or stage-managed by Kejriwal himself to play his usual victim card.”
