Cash sting: AAP to take action against Chhotepur
The party has taken the matter very seriously. But I don’t know what its next course of action is.
CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contemplating action against its Punjab unit convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur for taking a packet of cash in a reported video sting operation. Not only he may be removed from his post, but even be expelled, barely six months before the assembly elections are due.
The video was shown to AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal upon his return from Himachal Pradesh, where he had gone for a Vipassana retreat from August 1 to 11, and he was “very upset”, said a Delhi-based, senior AAP leader, who briefed the media on the issue on Wednesday on the condition of not being named.
HT was first to report on the video on Tuesday that caused fresh tremors in the AAP in the run-up to the high-stakes polls.
“That is one of the reasons why he did not meet Chhotepur regarding any change in tickets,” said the leader, adding that Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia last week “confronted” Chhotepur with the video, for a reaction before any “appropriate action against him in the next few days”.
Chhotepur has expressed objections over the two lists of candidates announced so far, and has been waiting for an appointment to meet Kejriwal. He was absent at both press conferences where the lists, containing 32 names out of 117, were revealed earlier this month.
The video was made by an AAP supporter following verbal complaints that Chhotepur was demanding money for various purposes, the Delhi-based leader said. When asked for a copy of the video, the leader refused to part with it saying that will bring bad name to the party. “But the video is incriminating,” he said, adding that it had more content than acknowledged by Chhotepur in an interview with HT on Tuesday.
When contacted, Chhotepur said he is not aware of any such party move: “I have already said that it (sting) is a move to embarrass me. I don’t have anything more to say on the matter. I will speak up when the time is right.” He refused to comment on his meeting with Sisodia.