FORMER HARYANA SPEAKER KADIAN GETS 7-YEAR JAIL
KARNAL: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court awarded seven-year jail to former Haryana assembly speaker and senior Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Satbir Kadian in the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) fund misappropriation case.
Kadian was among six persons held guilty in a 23-year-old case of misappropriating ₹114 crore during his stint as the chairman of IFFCO from 1989 to 1992 when the INLD founder and former Haryana chief minister late Devi Lal was the deputy prime minister. The court has also imposed a fine of ₹50 lakh on Kadian. He was arrested and sent to Tihar jail on the order of the special CBI court in Karkardooma, Delhi, on Monday. CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday evening removed its Punjab convener, Sucha Singh Chhotepur, from the post and formed a panel to probe allegations of corruption against him. The decision by the party’s political affairs committee (PAC) in Delhi came over a reported video sting operation that has Chhotepur taking a packet of cash from a man, among other complaints.
The move by the party’s highest- decision-making body came hours after Chhotepur launched a blistering attack on the top AAP leadership for “conspiring” against him. While it did not name his replacement immediately, the PAC chaired by national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal appointed a two-member probe panel of Jarnail Singh, AAP MLA from Rajouri in Delhi who is also co-incharge of its Punjab affairs, and Jasbir Singh Bir, head of the AAP grievances cell in state.
Earlier in the day, Chhotepur, addressing a press conference, demanded that the video be made public and, reiterating that he had done no wrong, said he is ready for a probe even by the CBI.
He went ballistic directly against Kejriwal, alleging that while the party had no faith in Punjabis, he had even been asked to put his Sikhi (religion) “at stake” by Kejriwal.
“When Kejriwal came for service at the Golden Temple to atone for the manifesto cover (on which party symbol ‘broom’ next to Golden Temple had led to a row), he asked me why I had told the media that I didn’t know of the cover until it was released. I told him I had only spoken the truth. He said I should have owned it up as my fault,” Chhotepur said.
“I explained to him that the Akal Takth, the temporal seat of Sikhism, would have declared me tankhaiya (excommunicated me). He replied, ‘Toh kya hua agar aap ko Sikhi se nikaal dete (So what if they throw you out of Sikhism?) I was shocked, Chhotepur added, “How could I quit my religion for which I once gave up a ministerial berth? After that incident, I think, he decided to treat me like this!”
Flanked by five of the 13 parliamentary zone coordinators of the party in Punjab, Chhotepur said, “AAP has no faith in Punjabis, and its leaders have no knowledge of Sikh traditions.”
Later, MP Bhagwant Mann rebutted this and said Chhotepur is trying to lend a “communal colour” to the controversy. Mann said, “It is very unfortunate that Chhotepur is resorting to such cheap gimmicks to defend his corrupt act. If he was so perturbed, why didn’t he react and leave the party there and then?”
Chhotepur also said the sting was orchestrated by his partymen, though “other AAP leaders have gathered lakhs in cash from NRIs”. Have they ever given receipts, he asked. “Let the CBI probe each of us. I don’t have to name the AAP leaders whose lifestyle has changed drastically ever since they came to Punjab. It is visible and well-known,” he later told journalists.
He accused national organisation-building in-charge Durgesh Pathak of forcing him to come out in public against his own party. “Pathak is in complete control. He hands out tickets and handles the funds... He walked out of a meeting in October 2015 and started feeding the media against me. Pathak divided the party.”