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The Supreme Court today dismissed an appeal by Delhi Police against Delhi High Court order wherein the Court directed the Police to supply certain statements by VK Jain to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in a case relating to alleged assault of then Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash Assault case. 

Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice MR Shah while dismissing the appeal said, “It might be a politically hot potato but not in a legal manner. The High Court on merits of the case has passed a correct order”.

The Court further said that the High Court’s order of directing supply of statement of Jain who was advisor to Kejriwal to the accused(s) “supported liberty and we support it”

Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi led by Advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi appeared for the Delhi Police arguing that the prosecution was not relying on the statement purported by VK Jain.

The case pertains to the alleged assault of the then Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash in 2018, during a meeting at Kejriwal’s official residence. It must be noted that Prakash is now the Additional Secretary in the Department of Telecom. 

On October 25, 2018, Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and nine other AAP MLAs were granted bail by the trial court in the assault case. The alleged assault had triggered a bitter scuffle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats.

An application was filed by the Delhi CM under section 207 Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC) for supply of certain deficient documents including the copy of the statement of witness V.K. Jain, recorded on February 21, 2018 and audio/video recording of the examination of the petitioners. Barring the supply of legible copy of the documents mentioned in the application the ACMM declined the supply of the statement dated February 21, 2020 of V.K Jain and held that as per prosecution no statement under section 161 Cr.P.C. was recorded of V.K. Jain on February 21, 2020 and therefore the same cannot be supplied.

The Delhi High Court bench of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait in October 2020 had set aside an impugned order and directed the trial court to consider the statement of a witness while framing charges in connection with the case related to the alleged assault on former Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.

The trial court had in its order, which was contested by the AAP leaders, noted that since it was a record of oral examination of Mr. Jain by the Investigating Officer (IO) and was noted in the ‘Case Diary’, the said examination did not take the place of a statement made under Section 161 Cr.P.C (Examination of witnesses by police). It had declined to supply this “crucial document” to the AAP leaders.

Case Title: State Nct Of Delhi V. Arvind Kejriwal And Anr.| Slp(Crl) No. 6651/2020