Legislator held while addressing press meet

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Dinesh Mohaniya was arrested in the midst of a press conference here on Saturday for allegedly molesting and assaulting a woman from his constituency.

Mr. Mohaniya, who was sent to three days’ judicial custody, was to visit the police station but police personnel disrupted the press conference he was addressing.

The AAP termed the incident a symptom of “an unsaid emergency in the Capital,” coming as it does on the fortieth anniversary of the event.

“You can see how the police is dragging me away like hooligans would in front of your eyes,” a visibly shaken Mr. Mohaniya said as television crews watched.

Uncooperative, say police

The police later claimed that the MLA was “uncooperative” when they made several attempts to issue a notice to him to join the probe in the molestation and assault case against him.

“The allegations against the MLA were serious in nature. We actually wanted to serve him a notice to join us for questioning. We made several attempts to reach him, but he kept evading us,” Ishwar Singh, DCP (south), told The Hindu.

AAP protests

The AAP and the Chief Minister equated the development to “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s way of commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Emergency by clamping an unsaid version of it in the Capital”.

“Modi declares emergency in Delhi. Arresting, raiding, terrorizing, filing false cases against all those whom Delhi elected,” Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.

MLA arrested at press meet

Delhi police claimed that it was while searching for the MLA on Saturday that they learnt of him planning a press conference. “We believed he would again go into hiding after meeting the media. So we decided to arrest him from the press conference itself,” said a senior investigator in the case registered at Neb Sarai police station.

“Dinesh Mohaniya arrested from his press conference in front of all TV cameras. What msg does Modi want to give to everyone? (Sic.)” Mr Kejriwal said in another tweet.

Emergency comparisons

Other functionaries from the government followed the Chief Minister's lead with Aatishi Marlena, a prominent party figure, comparing visuals of Mr Mohaniya's arrest with that of a newspaper front page related to the declaration of the Emergency in 1975. “Are we not in an undeclared emergency again?” she asked.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia added that the AAP government and its members would not be cowed down even if the Prime Minister decided to put “all” of them behind bars. Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhyay, however, said the incident brought out the “Anti-Woman Character of AAP Leaders” and established the fact that there was “extreme water scarcity in remote resettlement colonies and villages of south Delhi.”