Security beefed up in central Delhi amid AAP call for protest at Shaheedi Park

Security personnel continue to patrol central Delhi on Saturday amid a call by the AAP to gather at Shaheedi Park to protest against the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with an excise policy-linked money-laundering case.

Delhi Minister Gopal Rai said all AAP MLAs, councillors and office-bearers, and INDIA bloc representatives will gather at Shaheedi Park at 10 am on Saturday — the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev — and take a pledge to save democracy.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will also attend the programme, Rai said.

Delhi Police officials said roads leading to Shaheedi Park have yet to be shut but may be closed depending on the situation.

“If they try to march or hold a protest, action will be taken,” a senior officer said.

Traffic may also be hit in parts of central Delhi due to heavy barricading and police deployment.

A local court on Friday remanded Kejriwal in the Enforcement Directorate’s custody till March 28 “for his detailed and sustained interrogation” regarding his role in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj, two ministers in the Kejriwal ministry, were detained on Friday while protesting against the BJP over the chief minister’s arrest.

The two ministers and others were taken away in police buses after they refused to disperse from the ITO intersection, which is near the headquarters of the AAP and the BJP and where prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are in force.

Shaheedi Park, located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, is about a kilometre from the BJP’s headquarters at DDU Marg to which the AAP leaders wanted to march and hold a protest on Friday.

They were stopped at ITO Chowk.

A police officer said paramilitary personnel, along with those from the police, will remain deployed around the BJP headquarters.

“We may shut the roads and the metro stations, depending on the situation,” the officer said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Central) Parmaditya said security personnel will continue to remain deployed in central Delhi.

AAP leaders said effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be burnt in all assembly constituencies of Delhi on Sunday.

Party workers will not celebrate Holi on Monday, they said and called for a “gherao” of the prime minister’s residence on Tuesday.

(With PTI inputs)