Ahead of the bypoll for May 10 Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, Opposition Congress has accused a minister in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of “sexual misconduct” on the basis of “video clips” and demanded his ouster even as the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday termed the allegation ‘baseless’.
Without naming anyone, Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who on Sunday claimed to have submitted “highly objectionable video clips of gross misconduct by an AAP minister” to Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit, on Tuesday said the governor has forwarded the “sleazy video” of the AAP minister to the Chandigarh Police to verify its authenticity sought its forensic report.
Khaira claimed the contents of the videos were so objectionable that a viewer cannot watch them even for 15-20 seconds. He said the two clips were of four-minute and eight-minute duration.
Adding fuel to the fire, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa claimed that “a highly obscene video of AAP minister Lal Chand Kataruchak has been submitted to the governor of Punjab”. In a tweet, Sirsa said, “The minister has tendered his resignation….”
The CM, however, claimed he did not receive any resignation or video. He said Khaira had earlier made allegations against the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Kataruchak regarding appointment of his son as his telephone attendant and his nephew (sister-in-law’s son) as his special assistant which was also baseless.
“Khaira should tell the media that if Kataruchak was indulging in any impropriety, why his political alliance fielded Kataruchak as candidate in the 2019 Parliamentary elections,” Mann asked. A splinter group of AAP, Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) which was led by Khaira who later joined Congress, had fielded Kataruchak (52) from Gurdsapur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The CM said the allegations showed that the Opposition was not getting any issues ahead of the Lok Sabha bypoll in Jalandhar. An MLA from Bhoa in Pathankot, Kataruchak has also rejected Khaira’s allegations saying Khaira’s main job is to remain in the media by creating sensationalism and taking political mileage out of it.
Khaira, however, said the CM was running away from giving satisfactory answers about scandals by his ministers like Kataruchak. He said by doing this, Mann has “admitted their guilt and is shamelessly defending their misconduct and cheating”.
The Congress leader said there couldn’t be a more lame excuse offered by Mann to defend Ministers like Kataruchak saying why we couldn’t find fault in him during 2019 LS elections. “How would I know in 2019 what a person would do in 2023? It shows the coward in CM,” Khaira said in a tweet.
Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said the charges made by Khaira against the Cabinet minister of AAP are very serious. “I request the Honourable Governor to get an independent inquiry done in the matter and make the name of the tainted minister public. The said minister should be dropped till the time inquiry…,” he said in a tweet.