BJP`s Vijay Jolly booked for vandalising Shoma Chaudhury`s house

BJP leader Vijay Jolly was Thursday asked by Delhi Police to appear at a police station on Friday morning to record his statement after he defaced the name plate of the residence of Tehelka`s former managing editor Shoma Chaudhury.

New Delhi: BJP leader Vijay Jolly was Thursday asked by Delhi Police to appear at a police station on Friday morning to record his statement after he defaced the name plate and poured black paint in front of the residence of Tehelka`s former managing editor Shoma Chaudhury.

Hours after booking Jolly under various section of the Indian Penal Code, police Thursday sent him a letter to appear at Saket police station in south Delhi Friday around 10 a.m. to record his statement under section 160 of CrPC. A case under the IPC and the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act was registered at the police station Thursday evening. Officials said policemen have been deployed outside Chaudhury`s house and one has been deputed for her security. An internal inquiry has also been marked against an inspector who was found standing outside Chaudhury`s house when the protest took place. Earlier in the day, around 50 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members led by Jolly reached Chaudhury`s house in Saket and raised slogans against her. Jolly painted the name plate black and also wrote a word with black paint. He also poured black paint outside Chaudhary`s house. Police deployed outside the house managed to disperse them. Jolly said Chaudhury was suppressing facts and evidence against the magazine`s editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, accused of sexually assaulting a woman colleague. "Shoma Chaudhury should be arrested for irresponsible statements. She was aware of the ill-doings of Tejpal. Despite that, she suppressed the matter to insulate the image of the organisation and her boss," Jolly said. The protest began soon after news of Chaudhury`s resignation came out Thursday afternoon. The BJP, however, distanced itself from the incident. Senior party leader Nitin Gadkari said he heard that some workers protested outside Chaudhury`s house but the party had nothing to do with it and it was not organised by the BJP. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said: "I will never agree with this method of protest. Both I and Arun Jaitley had told Jolly not to stage such a protest." "Party president (Rajnath Singh) will take action against him (Jolly), but I totally condemn it," she said. Chaudhury`s resignation came 10 days after a woman journalist with the news magazine wrote to her and accused Tejpal of sexual assault during a conference organised by the magazine in Goa earlier this month. Jolly in a press statement said the protest was spontaneous and was not organised by the BJP. He said it was a decision taken on the spur of the moment.