MLA arrest: AAP cries foul; Cong, BJP train guns on Delhi Govt

New Delhi, Jul 9: AAP today cried foul over the arrest of its MLA Manoj Kumar, alleging "vindictiveness" by the Centre, as Congress and BJP trained their guns on the ruling party for not appointing a Lokayukta who could probe into complaints against legislators.

Taking a jibe at BJP and Delhi Police, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said it was surprising that there are many high profile people involved in the Vyapam scam, but the saffron party was using Delhi Police to arrest AAP leaders.

"The case pertains to February 2014. Since then there has been no investigation, no summons. This is nothing but vindictiveness. The police is being used as a political weapon against us and we are ready for it," said AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai.

Kumar has been charged under Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine forged document, 420 (cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. He is the second AAP lawmaker to be arrested. On June 9, the then Law Minister Jitendra Singh Tomar was arrested on charges of possessing fake degrees. Tomar had later resigned from the Cabinet and has been in judicial custody.

"AAP leaders and MLAs are waiting to know when will they be arrested at Naredra Modi's behest. If it is 2014 case (referring to Manoj Kumar's case) and most of the time if the case pertains to land and money, usually the police asks people to approach the civil court.

"In this case, the police has shown promptness, but it failed to show the same in the Vyapam case where many influential people are involved," AAP leader Singh said.

Attacking AAP over the arrest of its MLA, BJP said Delhi Government was delaying the appointment of a Lokayukta as it would lead to probing of cases related to the legislators from the ruling party. A delegation of BJP legislators also met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and sought his "intervention" in the issue.

"The reason for non-appointment of Lokayukta is that it will bring within its fold cases of corrupt practices of more than two dozen AAP MLAs. Delhi is facing a constitutional crisis, Lokayukta is absent so AAP MLAs who are corrupt are roaming scot-free," Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said.

Reacting to the arrest, Congress said such incidents involving the ruling party legislators only underline the need to have Lokayukta for Delhi.

"Lot of complaints are being made against AAP MLAs. Hence, we keep repeating that there should be Lokayukta in Delhi which will be the mechanism to probe into the grievances," DPCC president Ajay Maken said.

PTI