Two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs Akhilesh Pati Tripathi and Sanjeev Jha, and 15 others have been convicted in a 7-year-old case by Rouse Avenue Court’s Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. The two MLAs have been found guilty of rioting and injuring police personnel at a police station in Delhi in 2015.
The MLAs were part of a mob that attacked policemen at Burari police station in Delhi in February 2015 over allegations that the police is not acting in a kidnapping case. Police said that the mob was asking them to hand over the accused persons to them so that they themselves can act against the accused. When denied, the mob attacked the on-duty police officers.
The court noted that the 2 MLAs were not only a part of the mob, but they were actively provoking and instigating the crowd.
The court in its judgment said, “This court is of the view that the prosecution has been able to establish that both the accused persons namely Sanjeev Jha and Akhilesh Pati Tripathi were present at the spot when the crowd turned violent and in fact had played a major role in provoking and instigating the crowd.”
Along with the 2 AAP MLAs, 15 others were also found guilty by the court. They were found guilty under Sections 147 (rioting), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in the prosecution of common object) of Indian Penal Code.
The quantum of the punishment will be announced on September 21 by the court.
This is the latest legal setback for the Aam Aadmi Party which is currently ruling Delhi. Their Health Minister, Satyendra Jain, is still in custody for money laundering, while their Education Minister Manish Sisodia is also under the CBI scanner for the alleged Excise Policy scam.
