The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday alleged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was being spied on by the Delhi Police with its Special Cell officials in plainclothes “roaming around” his residence the whole day, a claim denied by the force.
AAP chief spokesperson and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj told a press conference here the party’s Rajya Sabha MPs Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh have written to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora in connection with the matter.
Police sources rejected the charges of spying, saying Special Branch officials, and not Special Cell officials, are deployed for assessing security arrangements around the houses of dignitaries as part of a protocol.
“Special Branch officers are like the eyes and ears of Delhi Police. They carry out an assessment of threat, like whether the security personnel are doing their job properly, checking visitors, keeping a vigil or not,” a source said.
“They prepare a report on such things and submit them to their seniors. Their job is to see whether the local police and security personnel are doing their job properly. They assess the area and security arrangements around the houses of other dignitaries too. It is part of protocol and not spying,” the source said.
The Delhi BJP, meanwhile, alleged the AAP was making the claim to divert people’s attention from the “scam” in the renovation of Kejriwal’s official residence.
Addressing the media, Bharadwaj said, “In the last two days, our MPs have written letters on a very serious issue.” He then read out from the similar letters written by the MPs.
With inputs from News18