Assault on Anshu Prakash reflects 'trust deficit' between bureaucrats and MLAs, says Delhi HC; suggest video recording of meetings

New Delhi: The midnight assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash and the subsequent notices issued to him by several assembly committees reflect “trust deficit to the hilt” between the legislators and the bureaucrats, the Delhi High Court said on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_4367901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash. PTI[/caption] It also suggested to the Delhi government to videograph all meetings between the MLAs and bureaucrats henceforth. The court advised the AAP government to take this step so that “no unforeseen incident” occurs in the future and transparency is maintained. The court’s order came as it granting bail to AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash during a meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on the intervening night of 19-20 February. “Before disposing of the present petition, this court would like to note that during the course of arguments, the trust deficit between the members of Legislative Assembly and the bureaucrats is evident to the hilt. “To see that no unforeseen incident occurs in future and also to maintain transparency, the Government of NCT of Delhi would be well advised to get the meetings inter-se the legislators and the bureaucrats videographed,” Justice Mukta Gupta said. Jarwal, an MLA from Deoli, was arrested on 20 February, a day after the alleged incident. The court had earlier reserved its order on his bail plea on 7 March and said it was a very unfortunate situation where the state and the officers felt unsafe and were being threatened by each other. The bail plea of Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, who was also arrested in the case on 21 February, is pending before the court.