Punjab Horticulture, Food Processing and Defence Services Welfare Minister Fauja Singh Sarari resigned from the state Cabinet on Saturday following the leak of an audio clip purportedly suggesting an extortion plan four months back.
Sarari is the second minister in the Bhagwant Mann Cabinet to lose his place on corruption charges. Earlier in May 2022, Mann had sacked his health minister Dr Vijay Singla over charges of corruption.
A retired sub-inspector, Sarari, 62, sent his resignation to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who accepted it and inducted Dr Balbir Singh as Cabinet Minister. The CM reallocated the portfolios after the Cabinet reshuffle on Saturday following Fauja Singh Sarari’s resignation.
Dr Singh got the charge of the health and family welfare department. Chetan Singh Jouramajra, who held the charge of health department till now, has been given charge of all departments which were with Sarari, a first-time MLA from Guru Har Sahai.
In trouble for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Opposition was demanding dismissal of Sarari ever since a leaked audio clip of a conversation allegedly between the minister and his close aide, in which the duo could be purportedly heard discussing a plan to extort money, went viral.
In the audio tape, a voice said to be of Sarari says commission should be extorted from contractors while they were loading foodgrains for transportation, and that part of it should go to the district food and civil supplies controller.
Sarari has denied the allegations and questioned the authenticity of the audio clip, but the controversy has pushed the AAP and its government on the backfoot. In damage control, AAP had issued him a show-cause notice.
Meanwhile, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today slammed the CM Bhagwant Mann for procuring the resignation of Fauja Singh Sarari after being in cahoots with him for months ever since the release of the audio tape depicting the minister indulging in extortions. Terming the resignation as too little too late, the SAD demanded an impartial enquiry into the entire matter after registration of a criminal case against the minister and effecting his arrest.
Asking the chief minister to tell Punjabis why he had encouraged the corrupt deeds of Sarari for months and even indulged in a cover-up operation, senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said “It seems they have fallen apart or the chief minister has finally felt the pressure of Punjabis who are reeling under the corrupt deeds of AAP ministers”.