Chief Secretary assault case: Arvind Kejriwal's secretary, engineer questioned by Delhi Police

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's private secretary and a junior engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) were questioned by the Delhi Police on Tuesday in connection with the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.

During the investigation, it came to fore that although Kejriwal's staff was aware that the CCTV cameras installed at his residence were running late by 40 minutes but the matter was not reported to the PWD which maintains the cameras.

While Bibhav Kumar revealed to the police that he was aware of the delay, the PWD engineer told that he did not know anything about the technical glitch in the CCTV cameras.

However, the police are investigating if the delay was deliberate or not.

"The forensic report did not mention whether the cameras were tampered with or the time was changed when the attack took place. The junior engineer was questioned about the time lag -- whether it was deliberate or a system error," an officer, who is privy to the investigation said.

Kejriwal private secretary was earlier also questioned by the police in April in the case. Kumar and the junior engineer were sent notices on Tuesday and the questioning began at 12 noon.

On February 23, the police had examined the CCTV system at Kejriwal's official residence and seized the hard disk. Fourteen of the CCTV cameras were found to be functioning, while seven were not.

Earlier, the CM and his deputy were also questioned by the police in the assault case.

The chief secretary was allegedly attacked during a meeting at the chief minister's residence on February 19. The police had said Kejriwal was present at the time of the incident. Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, 11 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lawmakers and V K Jain, the chief minister's former advisor, all of whom were present at the time of the incident, have been questioned by the police.

Two AAP lawmakers -- Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal -- were arrested in the case and later released on bail. The alleged attack on Prakash had triggered a bitter tussle between the Delhi government and its bureaucrats. The government had accused the IAS officers of boycotting meetings with the ministers. However, the IAS officers had denied the accusation.

CCTVS FUNCTIONING

On February 23, the police had examined the CCTV system at Kejriwal’s official residence and seized the hard disk. 14 of the CCTV cameras were functioning, while 7 were not.