The Punjab Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Tuesday acquitted former Cabinet Minister Anmol Jagan Mann, along with three others, in a four-year-old case of assaulting police personnel and obstructing government work.
The court of Chief Justice, Chandigarh, acquitted Sachin Yadav, MAN, Sunny Ahluwalia (in-charge of Chandigarh AAP), Rajwinder Gill and Arshdeep Singh.
The case dates back to August 4, 2021, when AAP leaders tried to protest and destroy the BJP office in Sector 37, Chandigarh. The police intervened to prevent the protest from escalating, leading to a clash between AAP workers and police personnel, resulting in some officers being injured.
After the incident, an FIR was registered at the police station in Sector 39, under Sections 188 (disobeying an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant to deter him from his duty), and 353 (assault or use of criminal force on a public servant to prevent or deter him from discharging his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. Code (IPC) for allegedly assaulting public officials, obstructing them from performing their official duties, and attempting to break barricades.
The FIR stated that the leaders violated the social distancing norms imposed by the government in view of the Covid-19 outbreak at the time.
During the trial, defense counsel Bip Singh said that the four accused were wrongly implicated in the FIR and had no role in the matter.
After nearly four years of trial, the Chief Justice’s Court found that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, and thus all defendants were acquitted. Meanwhile, the court has not yet issued a detailed ruling.
(tags for translation) AAP Anmol Gagan Maan acquitted
