Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during his visit to Singhu border on Dec 7 to meet protesting farmers
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi has claimed that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been put under house arrest on Tuesday, a day after he visited the farmers protesting at the Singhu border. "BJP's Delhi Police has put CM Arvind Kejriwal under house arrest ever since he visited farmers at Singhu Border yesterday. No one has been permitted to leave or enter his residence," said the Aam Aadmi Party in a tweet.
The Delhi Police, however, denied the charges, with the DCP saying it was a "general deployment to avoid any clash between AAP and any other parties and Kejriwal was free to step out".
Meanwhile addressing a press conference AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said, "CM met farmers at Singhu border yesterday. He had said that we'll serve them like 'Sevadars' and support them. After he returned, Delhi Police barricaded his residence from all sides, putting him in a house-arrest like situation, at the behest of Home Ministry."
He further said, "No one is allowed to go inside, he is not allowed to come out. MLAs, who had a meeting with CM yesterday, were beaten up by Police when they went to meet him."
"Workers were not allowed to meet him either. BJP leaders are being made to sit outside his residence," he added.
Following the house arrest, all the meetings that were to be held by the CM have been cancelled.
On Monday, Kejriwal alleged that the Centre tried to "pressure" the Delhi government to convert the nine stadiums into temporary prisons during the farmers' 'Dilli Chalo' protest.
Kejriwal's remarks come as he arrived at Guru Teg Bahadur Memorial near the Singhu border (Delhi-Haryana border) to meet the protesting farmers and inspect the arrangements made for them.
Speaking to the media, he said that despite the Centre's pressure, the Delhi government did not proceed with the Delhi Police's request to convert stadiums into temporary prisons as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) believes that all the concerns of the farmers are legitimate.
"If you recall the farmers first came to the border areas of the Delhi, the Central government and the Delhi Police had pressured us to convert the 9 stadiums into prisons. At that time, I was put under pressure to give permission. I received a lot of phone calls. They had prepared a plan to send the farmers into the stadium. But we did not give them permission which helped the farmers to continue their protest," he alleged.
