A Delhi court on Saturday framed charges of attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy against Sakriya Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai, accused of assaulting Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta during a Jan Sunwai grievance redressal meeting at her camp office in north Delhi’s Civil Lines in August.
The order was passed by additional sessions judge Ekta Gauba Mann of Tis Hazari Courts.
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The court said that the victim, CM Gupta, was not only a woman but also the sitting chief minister of Delhi, and the accused, Rajeshbhai, managed to break into the security ring of the CM and attack her. “This prima facie shows that the accused Rajesh has come in a very calculated and well-prepared manner to attack upon the victim with an intention to kill…,” the court said.
The court said that this fact was supported by the conduct of the accused, who, within a matter of seconds of talking to the victim, attacked her and started throttling her with the intention to kill her. “This shows that accused Rajesh with a cool and calculated mind came only to attack the victim so, as to claim notoriety that he can even attack the victim who is not only a woman but a Chief Minister of Delhi…,” the court noted in the order.
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The court also framed criminal charges against Rajeshbhai’s co-accused Tahseen Raza, accused of conspiring with Rajeshbhai and giving him money to travel to the Capital.
Rejecting his plea for discharge, the court said that Tahseen had hatched the said conspiracy in secrecy and, hence, was liable to be prosecuted for the same offences.
The chief minister was attacked on August 20, while she was attending a weekly public hearing meeting at her camp office in Civil Lines.
Rajeshbhai, an auto driver from Rajkot, who had posed as a complainant and entered the venue, was swiftly overpowered by security personnel and taken into custody.
Advocates Harry Chibber and Sidhant Malik, appearing for Rajeshbhai, contended that Rajeshbhai was a dog lover and was distressed by the Supreme Court’s initial order of moving all stray dogs to shelters.
To this contention, the court observed that the accused went on to attack the victim, who had no role in passing the order.
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The order said, “The law of the country is that justice empowers every woman from CH to CM i.e., from woman who is cooking help to Chief Minister and law protects them and punishes the wrong doer with an iron hand”.
HT previously reported that the charge sheet in the case, filed on October 18, alleged that Rajeshbhai was purportedly angered by Gupta over her alleged refusal to oppose the Supreme Court’s decision.
Police had said that he arrived in Delhi from Rajkot on August 19, a day before the attack. He checked into the Gujarati Samaj guest house in Civil Lines, from where he allegedly carried out a recce of the CM’s official residence in Shalimar Bagh and her Civil Lines camp office to study the security arrangements.