East Delhi lawmaker Maheish Girri sat on a hunger strike outside Arvind Kejriwal's residence on Flagstaff Road. (PTI photo)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today dubbed the hunger strike of BJP lawmaker Maheish Girri outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence as a "drama" and alleged that Delhi Police is "shielding" him in the murder case of NDMC official MM Khan.
"Girri should refrain from doing nautanki (drama) by staging a hunger strike outside Arvind Kejriwal's residence. Unless he is arrested and questioned by the police there could not be any talk of his innocence," Delhi AAP convenor Dilip Pandey told a press conference.
He asserted that both Mr Girri and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) Vice Chairman Karan Singh Tanwar were given clean chit and were outside the ambit of investigation in the murder case and accused the police of "shielding" them.
"Modiji's police is shielding them. If the police were under Delhi government, both Girri and Tanwar would be in jail," Mr Pandey said.
He alleged that Mr Girri "accompanied" Ramesh Kakkar (accused in Mr Khan's murder case) to Lieutenant Governor's office in connection with the latter's hotel lease which was to be decided by Mr Khan.
Showing the copy of a "covering letter" purportedly written by Mr Girri, Mr Pandey alleged that it was attached to Mr Kakkar's letter to Lieutenant Governor regarding the lease issue.
"The truth will come out with the arrest of Girri as he was seen standing with a dishonest and now killer (man) by writing a letter in his favour," he said.
BJP is setting a new "trend" of adopting this "tactic" of staging dharna at Mr Kejriwal's residence by those who have committed a wrong, Mr Pandey claimed.
"Even if you have committed murder you can sit at dharna outside Kejriwal's residence to divert and dilute the matter."
BJP is setting a new benchmark of staging dharna over "non-issues" while AAP-led government in Delhi is setting a benchmark of pro-people governance through its innovative work, he said.
On a question of the BJP lawmaker's demand for a debate with Mr Kejriwal over his allegations in the murder case, Mr Pandey said, "He (Girri) should first ask Modi for communication with the people of the country and Kejriwal who had been asking for a debate over public issues."
He said the debate will take place in a court but before that he will be arrested and a chargesheet filed against him.
The East Delhi lawmaker sat on a hunger strike outside Mr Kejriwal's residence on Flagstaff Road yesterday demanding that the chief minister prove his allegations regarding his involvement in the murder.
Mr Khan, an estate officer of NDMC, was shot dead in Jamia Nagar on May 16, a day before he was scheduled to pass the final order on the lease terms of a hotel located on a property leased out by the civic body.