Amanatullah Khan, AAP lawmaker, allegedly threatened to kill a woman
Highlights
- Amanatullah Khan arrested for threatening to kill a woman
- AAP says she was "pressured" to give false statement
- 'Modi ji arrests one more AAP MLA,' tweets Arvind Kejriwal
Amanatullah Khan, a lawmaker from Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, has been arrested by the Delhi Police for threatening to kill a woman.
He was first detained for questioning and then arrested, a day after he alleged in a press conference that the woman was "pressured" by police to give a false statement against him.
He is the 10th AAP lawmaker to be arrested since the party swept to power in February 2015.
The 35-year-old woman, a resident of Mr Khan's constituency Jamia Nagar, had on July 20 complained to the police alleging that he threatened to kill her when she went to his house to complain about frequent power cuts in the area. He wanted her to "stop politicising the matter".
Two days later, in her statement before a magistrate, she alleged that a car, in which the lawmaker was sitting, tried to run her over while she was returning home.
Soon after he was detained today, AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: "Just in - Modi ji arrests one more AAP MLA."
Rejecting the charges against the lawmaker, Mr Kejriwal's party had yesterday released a video alleging that she was acting on the directions of the police and the BJP.
After Mr Khan's arrest, scores of AAP supporters staged a protest outside the Jamia Nagar police station seeking his release. They said the legislator had been framed.
The Bhartiya Janata Party, however, accused the AAP of having "anti-women character". "This party has anti-women character and is filled with criminal minded people who don't respect women," BJP leader Satish Upadhyay told IANS.
Earlier this month, Rajendra Kumar, an IAS officer who was Mr Kejriwal's Principal Secretary, was arrested after the CBI accused him of a Rs. 50 crore scam in the purchase of computers by the government.