New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS): The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought a status report from the Delhi Police on a plea filed by the man who was allegedly assaulted and slapped by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Parvesh Verma during an inspection of an under-construction road in the national capital.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Sachin Datta issued notice on the plea, which seeks protection of the petitioner’s life and liberty, preservation of CCTV footage and other electronic evidence, and an independent investigation into allegations of assault, threats and police inaction.
The Delhi Police opposed the maintainability of the plea and sought its dismissal on that ground. However, the High Court called for a status report from the police and listed the matter for further hearing on November 17.
The petitioner has sought protection from any threat to his life and liberty and preservation of CCTV footage and other electronic evidence relating to the locations concerned between September 25 and September 30, apprehending that such material could be overwritten or lost.
According to the plea, the petitioner had approached the Commissioner of Police on September 29, seeking registration of an FIR, legal action and protection. He has alleged that despite his complaint, no effective action was taken by the police.
The plea seeks an investigation into the allegations against Minister Verma and his associates and requests that the probe be entrusted to an independent investigating team or agency not connected with the police personnel against whom allegations have been made.
The plea further seeks the constitution of an independent judicially supervised inquiry committee headed by a former Delhi High Court judge to examine the complaints, CCTV and electronic evidence, as well as police records and submit a time-bound report to the High Court.
The plea has been filed in the aftermath of an alleged altercation during Verma’s inspection of a road in Tilak Nagar in West Delhi. Verma, who also holds the Public Works Department portfolio, was inspecting the road when the incident allegedly took place.
The petitioner, Sahib Singh, has alleged that he accompanied an AAP MLA to inspect the road quality after receiving a call. He claimed that while he was recording the inspection, Verma pushed down his mobile phone and slapped him before moving behind his police and security personnel.
A video of the incident shows Verma pulling down Singh’s mobile phone with his left hand while the latter was recording him, following which he appears to slap Singh with his right hand.
A scuffle then followed, with a security guard intervening between the two.
Verma has defended his conduct, claiming that Sahib Singh had abused his family members and that he reacted to the alleged abuse. However, the victim has denied the allegation.
A day after the incident, Sahib Singh had demanded Verma’s resignation and registration of an FIR, saying the Deputy Chief Minister was “not worthy” of holding the post.
Speaking to IANS, Singh had said, “Our demand is that the Deputy Chief Minister should resign; he is not worthy of being a minister. An FIR should at least be registered against him.”
Singh had also claimed that the entire incident was captured on video and that the footage would establish what happened.
“You can check my live video stream. I was streaming live on Jarnail Singh’s Instagram page at that moment. When I picked up a piece of the broken road, pointed the camera and walked towards them, he snatched my phone. I have the full recording,” he had said.
He further said that he was willing to accept any allegation against him if there was evidence that he had used abusive or disrespectful language. “If there is even 1 per cent evidence that I used any abusive language or showed disrespect, I am ready to accept all allegations and apologise to them. But we didn’t say anything inappropriate,” Sahib Singh had said.
