The AAP on Friday could act against its Punjab unit chief Suchha Singh Chhotepur over charges of alleged corruption during a meeting of the party’s high-powered Political Affairs Committee (PAC), in what could be a repeat of the Asim Ahmed Khan episode.
Sources in the AAP said the PAC will discuss a 12-minute recording of Chhotepur’s recent meeting with Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in which he is said to have confessed accepting cash from a man seeking a ticket. They claimed that the Punjab leader also apologised to Sisodia for the episode.
In October last year, party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal held a press conference with Sisodia and announced that they had sacked cabinet minister Khan after taped conversations revealed he allegedly demanded a bribe from a builder.
Read: Cash-packet video stings AAP Punjab chief Chhotepur
Kejriwal played a clip of the recording of the alleged conversation between the Delhi minister and the builder. He also announced that the was matter referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
AAP leaders believe a similar action against Chhotepur will help the party in poll-bound Punjab, where corruption is one of the main issues in the upcoming assembly election.
{{/usCountry}}AAP leaders believe a similar action against Chhotepur will help the party in poll-bound Punjab, where corruption is one of the main issues in the upcoming assembly election.
{{/usCountry}}Twenty-one senior party leaders from Punjab on Thursday wrote to Kejriwal, seeking an investigation into the charges and “exemplary action” against Chhotepur.
In the letter, signed by HS Phoolka, Faridkot MP Sadhu Singh and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann among others, they invoked the party’s “zero tolerance policy towards corruption and demanded that action be taken if he is found guilty”, Mann told HT.
Read: Kejriwal plays minister’s ‘bribe tape’ in public, sacks him
Chhotepur is seen receiving a packet containing cash from a man in a purported sting video which is now with the party’s leaders.
In an earlier interview to HT, Chhotepur did not deny the authenticity of the video but said accepting cash did not prove a quid pro quo and that it was for the party’s fund in Punjab.
Chhotepur refused to comment on the letter seeking action against him but said he would rebut all allegations against him at a press conference on Friday afternoon in Chandigarh.
The friction between the AAP’s Punjab in-charge Sanjay Singh, his deputy Durgesh Pathak and Chhotepur has been growing over the past few weeks over the selection of candidates in the state.