‘I just wanted to have an argument with him’
Ankit Bhardwaj, the man who allegedly attacked sacked AAP minister Kapil Mishra on Wednesday, is a chartered accountant who sidelined his work after getting inspired by Arvind Kejriwal’s politics, said a senior police officer after interrogating him.
“He has been a volunteer with the Aam Aadmi Party since 2014 in Mundka assembly constituency. He is associated with a mohalla clinic in west Delhi’s Mundka,” Jatin Narwal, DCP (north), told HT.
The officer said Bhardwaj produced his evidence of his chartered accountancy work but maintained that his work had taken a backseat ever since he joined AAP.
Aam Aadmi Party, however, dissociated itself from the incident. “Neither do we believe in violence nor advocate it. We condemn such an action. If it is found that he belongs to AAP, we will take action against him,” an AAP official told HT.
He is a resident of south Delhi’s Moti Bagh and his father is a head constable with the Secretariat Security Force (SSF).
Bhardwaj told his interrogators that when he visited Kapil Mishra’s residence in Civil Lines on Wednesday evening, he wanted to have a “discussion and argument” with him over why the former minister has been going against AAP and Kejriwal.
“He was distressed with what had been happening to the party,” said the DCP.
The youth told police that during the argument, he was waving his hand to express himself. “When his hand moved forward during the discussion with Mishra, it was construed as an assault,” a senior police officer said. “He insists he did not hit Mishra and is angry that he was not getting his answers from the former minister,” he said.
“Even if we assume that he did assault Mishra, it was not a preplanned move,” the officer added.
Mishra’s supporters thrashed Bhardwaj for allegedly assaulting the former minister and was rescued by a policeman on the spot even as he was left with torn clothes. “He was taken to Sushruta Trauma Centre for treatment and medical examination,” said the officer, adding that he suffered abrasions.
Bhardwaj has been booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, both bailable sections. He will be produced in a court on Thursday, police said. Soon after the alleged assault, AAP members found a Facebook account in the name of Ankit Bhardwaj, who was a leader of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP’s youth wing, and claimed he was the man involved in the fracas.
However, the BJP as well as BJYM dismissed the allegations, saying that the two Ankit Bhardwaj’s were different persons.