edited by: Pathikrit Sen Gupta
Last Update: February 17, 2023, 01:13 IST
In a tweet, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal termed the Mann government as ‘Katar dishonest government’. File Photo/PTI
What created a huge controversy was that the complainant alleged that MLA Amit Ratan Kotphatta had spoken to him and asked him to give money to the accused.
Putting the Aam Aadmi Party government in trouble in Punjab, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Thursday arrested a close aide of Bathinda Rural AAP MLA Amit Ratan Kotphatta while accepting a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from Bathinda Circuit House. , The complainant alleges that the bribe was taken at the behest of the MLA.
A spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau said that Resham Garg, a resident of Samana in Patiala, was arrested on the basis of a complaint by Pritpal Kumar, husband of Seema Rani, sarpanch of Ghuda village in Sangat block of Bathinda district.
He said the complainant approached the bureau, alleging that the accused was demanding a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from his wife in lieu of releasing a government grant of Rs 25 lakh to Gram Panchayat Ghuda from BDPO, Sangat. He alleged that the accused had taken a bribe of Rs 50,000 and were demanding the remaining amount.
The Vigilance Bureau laid a trap and arrested the accused red-handed in the presence of two official witnesses while taking a bribe of Rs.4 lakh from the complainant as second installment.
A case under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the accused at the Vigilance Bureau Police Station, Bathinda.
What created a huge controversy was that the complainant, Pritpal, alleged that MLA Amit Ratan had spoken to him and asked Garg to pay him.
Garg was caught by VB when he was going out of the car with the money. MLA Amit Ratan was present in a room of the circuit house. Later, both Amit Ratan and his close aide were questioned by the VB team at the Circuit House for more than two hours. Later, the police took Garg with them.
This issue has given the opposition an opportunity to target the Bhagwant Mann government. Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal tweeted, ‘After being expelled from SAD on charges of corruption, the unscrupulous government gave ticket to Amit Ratan. Now AAP MLA Ratan was caught red handed while taking bribe from a sarpanch of my constituency. Bhagwant is trying to pin the blame on his PA. Why are they not arresting the MLA and investigating his actions?”
Even BJP leaders led by former MLA and party’s Bathinda president Sarup Chand Singla reached the spot and started raising slogans against the AAP government.
The MLA has denied that he had sought the bribe and has distanced himself from Garg, claiming that he was not associated with him.
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