The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday called for protests outside the BJP headquarters on Wednesday after a man with a packet of chilli powder assaulted Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the secretariat building on Tuesday afternoon.

After 2pm, Anil Sharma from north Delhi approached Kejriwal who was leaving his office on the third floor of Players Building — the Delhi Secretariat — for lunch. He handed him a letter, saying “Aap hee se ummeed hai.”

Sharma is seen in CCTV footage touching Kejriwal’s feet even as the chief minister tries to move away. The man then lunges at the AAP leader, knocking off his glasses, and tries to smear something on his face before he is overpowered by security officials.

The man dropped red chilli powder wrapped in a gutkha packet.

Additional DCP (Central Delhi) Amit Sharma said: “When Hon’ble CM was coming out of his chamber, one person later identified as Anil Kumar Sharma aged 40 yrs r/o Naraina tried to hand over his complaint to the CM, who in turn passed it on to a staff member. In the meantime, Anil Kr. Sharma bowed down to touch the feet of Hon’ble CM, the CM security tried to remove him and it resulted in dropping of specs of CM. Subsequently security personnel removed him aside and found him carrying a pouch in his hand, which got torn and apparently containing chilly powder.”

Sharma has been detained and vowed to shoot Kejriwal after he is released from jail.

The chief minister escaped unhurt.

AAP’s Raghav Chadha, who was with Kejriwal, said: “First Delhi Police failed to protect the CM from the attacker in a high security zone as the Secretariat, right outside the CM’s own office, now they have failed in responsibly investigating the attack and have instead resorted to feeding stories to the media… I am willing to depose that the CM was indeed attacked with malicious intent to cause injury…..”