AAP releases video showing Delhi LG ‘leading mob’ against Medha Patkar in 2002

PTI, Mar 17, 2023, 10:33 AM IST

Image: Twitter/@AamAadmiParty

The AAP Thursday released a video purportedly showing Delhi LG V K Saxena inciting a mob during the 2002 Sabarmati Ashram attack in Ahmedabad.

The party asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the Lt Governor is held accountable for his ”crimes.” There was no immediate reaction from the LG office on Saxena’s role in the incident which took place at the Mahatma Gandhi-founded ashram, where scores of journalists and activists had gathered to call for peace in the wake of the 2002 Godhra train burning. Senior AAP Leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh called upon the citizens of the country to ”see and recognise the real face of the LG.” A man of criminal character cannot be responsible for law and order and security in the national capital, he alleged.

Singh in a press conference here shared a video that purportedly showed Saxena inciting and leading a mob that attacked activist Medha Patkar in 2002 at Sabarmati Ashram.

Saxena was named ”Accused No. 4” in the FIR filed in connection with the incident, he said. He went on to accuse Saxena of rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, criminal intimidation, unlawful assembly, and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace citing the FIR.

”It is shameful for the entire country that a goon who led a violent mob attack on Medha Patkar, who has received many international honours for her contribution to upholding human rights, including the Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice, was made the Lieutenant General of Delhi,” he said.

Singh also said that Saxena has filed an affidavit in the case, arguing that a criminal trial against him be kept in abeyance till he continues to occupy the office of LG.

Saxena has argued that he should enjoy immunity from being answerable to courts while holding office, stating that his position ”enjoys the ‘status of office’ higher than Governor and lower than the President,” Singh said.

”Saxena is scared that if he presents himself in court, he will be convicted because the evidence against him is undeniable,” he said.