Anshu Prakash had claimed that he was assaulted at a meeting at Arvind Kejriwal's home.
Highlights
- Anshu Prakash was among several bureaucrats transferred on Saturday
- He claims Kejriwal, Sisodia and 11 others assaulted him on February 19
- AAP government, however, says he filed complaint at PM Modi's behest
Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, who had accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party leaders of assaulting him earlier this year, was transferred as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle on Saturday.
Mr Prakash will now be the Additional Secretary in the Department of Telecommunications, filling a vacancy created by the appointment of another IAS official -- N Sivasailam -- as the Special Secretary (Logistics), Department of Commerce. A number of other officials, including ABP Pandey and Yogendra Tripathy, were also transferred in the reshuffle.
However, the order from the central government did not name a new Chief Secretary for Delhi.
Mr Prakash, a 1986-batch IAS official, was allegedly assaulted during a midnight meeting held at the Chief Minister's residence on February 19. A chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police claimed that the attack was deliberate, and named Mr Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia among those accused. Investigators also alleged a cover-up by the accused, which involved the disconnection of several CCTVs to prevent the incident from being recorded.
A city court granted bail to all the accused last month, but warned them against tampering with the evidence in the case.
The ruling party rejected the police chargesheet, with city unit spokesperson terming it as the "first instance of a chief minister being examined in a fake case". "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is misusing the police to target the chief minister, but people stand by Kejriwalji," he said, also accusing the BJP-led central government of "pressurising" Mr Prakash to take on the AAP leadership.
Mr Prakash's complaint to the police alleged that Mr Kejriwal, Mr Sisodia and 11 party MLAs were present at the meeting, where they allegedly threatened to implicate him in false cases unless an issue with releasing television advertisements about the AAP government's achievements was resolved at the earliest. He said they roughed him up when he protested against being treated in this fashion.