HC asks police to ensure implementation of security measures outside Delhi CM's residence

The Delhi High Court directed the city police on Thursday to ensure that measures for the safety and security of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence are implemented in view of an incident of vandalism during a protest in March.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad closed the proceedings on a public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, seeking the formation of an SIT to probe the March 30 incident outside the chief minister’s residence during a protest against Kejriwal’s remarks on ”The Kashmir Files”, a film on the plight of displaced Kashmiri Pandits.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel told the court that the grievances raised in the plea have been satisfied in view of the assurances given by the Delhi Police in several status reports filed before the court.

The court directed the Delhi Police to ensure that the steps mentioned in its status reports regarding the safety and security of the chief minister’s house are implemented.

”No further orders are required to be passed in the present writ petition. The petition is accordingly disposed of,” the bench said.

The Delhi Police’s counsel had earlier informed the court that two gates would be put up on both ends of the road leading to the chief minister’s residence and that 60 per cent of the work was complete and the remaining work would be completed soon.

The counsel had also told the court that police had filed a chargesheet against 30 people in the case concerning the incident outside Kejriwal’s residence.

Scores of members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had allegedly breached the barricades outside Kejriwal’s residence and destroyed public property in the presence of police personnel.

The city police had informed the court that the security outside the chief minister’s residence was beefed up with the deployment of more armed guards.

Earlier, the court had voiced displeasure over the ”failure” of the Delhi Police to prevent the incident of vandalism at the chief minister’s residence and directed the police commissioner to fix responsibility for the ”serious lapse”. It had also remarked that the incident pointed towards a ”very disturbing state of affairs”.

It had taken note of an earlier status report filed by the Delhi Police on the incident, which said miscreants breached the barricades and reached the gate of the chief minister’s residence.

Bhardwaj, in his petition filed through advocate Bharat Gupta, had sought the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the incident and argued that the vandalisation of the chief minister’s official residence appears to have been carried out with the Delhi Police’s tacit complicity.

”On March 30, 2022, several BJP goons, in the garb of a protest, launched an attack on the official residence of the Delhi chief minister. Videos and photographs show that these goons casually walked through the security cordon (maintained by the Delhi Police), kicked and broke the boom barrier, broke the CCTV cameras with lathis, threw paint on the gate of the residence and almost climbed over the gate, while Delhi Police personnel simply looked on, doing little to stop the protesters,” the plea had alleged.