Medical report showing swellings, bruises crucial: Cops

NEW DELHI: The medical examination of Delhi’s chief secretary, Anshu Prakash, has pointed to swelling and bruises on his face, and the police are treating it as an important piece of evidence.

The chief secretary was allegedly assaulted by some Aam Aadmi Party MLAs during a midnight meeting at the Delhi chief minister’s home on Monday. The CS had got a FIR registered against MLA Amanatullah Khan and other unnamed legislators.

From Tuesday night until Wednesday afternoon, police have arrested two MLAs, Khan and Prakash Jarwal. “These two MLAs were the ones who allegedly hit the chief secretary,” said Dependra Pathak, Delhi Police’s chief spokesperson.

He said they are likely to question everyone present in the meeting, including the peons, guards and those who encountered the top officer immediately after the alleged assault. A senior investigator did not rule out questioning chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia “if the need be”.

As the police hunt for evidence, the medico-legal case (MLC) report prepared by doctors at the Delhi government’s Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital on Tuesday night, noted that Prakash had complained of painful movement of the neck, pain behind both his ears and below his right eye.

The examining doctor observed “tenderness and mild swelling” behind both ears, swelling over the jaw on the right side and a bruise over the lower lip.

“Depending on the severity of assault, the patients usually have bruises, cuts and lacerations, and fractures. The injuries — bruises and swellings — happen when someone is assaulted with fists, slaps and punches,” said Dr VK Tiwari, a plastic surgeon at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

Police investigators, who until the MLC report, only had Prakash’s statement to proceed, saw the MLC report as crucial evidence. A police officer who had interacted with Prakash said that the officer had been sandwiched between two MLAs who allegedly heckled him with elbows before raining punches on his face. “Two punches had landed on his forehead,” said the officer.

The police on Wednesday morning questioned VK Jain, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s advisor, who had allegedly called Prakash on his mobile phone at 8.45 pm on Monday.

“We interacted with Jain for over two hours. We understood him as a messenger who was present at the controversial meeting. He did not seem immediately liable for the offence, so we let him go,” said an investigator.

Pathak said the main focus through Wednesday was on arresting Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan, the two MLAs who allegedly physically assaulted the chief secretary. While Khan was named in the FIR, the chief secretary identified Jarwal as the other assaulter from a photograph.