Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was slapped by an AAP supporter during a roadshow in the national capital on Saturday (May 4) evening.
The 33-year-old man, identified as Suresh, has been a supporter of Kejriwal's party. The man used to work as an organiser of the AAP's rallies and meetings.
Kejriwal was campaigning for an AAP candidate for New Delhi, Brijesh Goyal, in Moti Nagar of New Delhi when the incident happened. The Chief Minister was atop a truck, interacting with supporters when Suresh climbed the vehicle and slapped him.
Suresh was immediately caught by AAP workers and handed over to the Moti Nagar Police. The police charged him Section 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code. It is not known if he will face a jail sentence for his actions.
Suresh owns a repair shop in Kasturi Nagar in New Delhi.
#WATCH: A man slaps Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during his roadshow in Moti Nagar area. (Note: Abusive language) pic.twitter.com/laDndqOSL4
— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2019
Reports claim that Kejriwal's security team had received inputs from the police one week earlier that he would be attacked. The police had asked the team to increase the chief minister's security by adding more police personnel but were denied the request.
"There was no specific input about any particular event but we were alerted about a possible physical attack on Mr Kejriwal when he was either out on a morning walk or participating in a public event such as a road show," a police source was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia did not try to hide his anger that the Delhi Police knew about the impending attack and did not do anything to try and stop it.
Sisodia tweeted "It's appalling that the Delhi Police knew of the impending attack on the CM and it did not try to stop it. Clear that it's a conspiracy and is being controlled from the top. CMs security is the job of Delhi Police and they are under oath to ensure it. Then why this callousness?"
This is not the first time Kejriwal has been attacked by angry civilians.
Earlier, an angry civilian threw chilli powder at him in November last year. Before that, a shoe was hurled at Kejriwal in 2016 when he was addressing civilians regarding phase 2 of the odd-even scheme for vehicles in order to curb pollution in the union territory.
In 2014, Kejriwal was slapped by an angry auto driver when he was campaigning for the assembly elections in Sultanpuri district of northwest Delhi.
