An audio clip, allegedly of Aam Aadmi Party’s minister from Punjab, Fauja Singh Sarari, and his close aide Tarsem Lal Kapoor is making rounds on social media platforms in which the duo can be heard discussing an extortion plan to extract money from transporters and officials. Sarai is the minister of Freedom Fighter Defense services, Welfare Food Processing, and Horticulture departments.
Its now a test of @BhagwantMann on d issue of corruption in high places as he arrested Dr Singla on charges that were never made public but in d case of Minister Sarari his audio on corruption is in public domain?If he retains Sarari it would mean action against Singla was bogus pic.twitter.com/wDJExG5vpD
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) September 11, 2022
In the audio clip, the duo was discussing the process of catching transporters and officials while illegitimate goods were being loaded on the trucks. One of them said the information about the truck loading could be extracted as the transporters had to inform the government 15 days in advance if their trucks were going for delivery. The minister questioned if it was possible that the truck driver and helper could escape, to which the person on the other side said it was not possible as the agencies had to raid in the middle of the loading process.
In a statement, the minister has denied the allegations levelled against him. He said, “The audio clip is fake and is a conspiracy against me.” Sarai also demanded legal action against the person(s) behind “creating” the clip and circulating it on social media. Notably, one of the ministers of the Bhagwant Mann cabinet has already been sacked over corruption charges.
Following the audio clip that went viral on social media, Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira demanded the dismissal of Sarai from the cabinet. Khaira shared the clip from his Twitter handle and remarked, “This is an open and shut case.”
Khaira said he has hopes that Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Mann would sack and arrest Sarai in the same manner, he sacked former health minister Dr Vijay Singla. He added, “Sarari has not left anything to doubt, and his audio recording is already in the public domain.”
Khaira said if the government fails to take action against Sarari, people would believe that the dismissal of Dr Singla was just a drama. He said, “If the government does not act against Sarari, then public belief that the AAP government enacted a drama in Dr Singla’s case, as it wanted to project an image of zero tolerance against corruption ahead of Sangrur parliamentary by-elections, will be reaffirmed.”
