AAP, LIP take up audio-tape issue with CJ

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 28

The Aam Aadmi Party today sought to make the alleged “audio-tape scandal” the focus of the day’s business in the Punjab Assembly by insisting on a commitment from the government for a CBI inquiry into the matter.

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While the Capt Amarinder Singh government brushed aside the issue saying it was a judicial matter, the AAP and alliance partner Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) later in the day took up the matter with the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, submitting a written complaint during a nearly half-an-hour meeting with Chief Justice SJ Vazifdar, who was accompanied by two senior judges.

Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Khaira and LIP MLA Simarjit Singh Bains represented their parties.

Bains had yesterday released an audio-tape allegedly featuring a  “conversation between a former Deputy Advocate General, Amit Chaudhary, and an ex-PCS officer, TK Goel”, in which Amit claims that Rs 35 lakh was paid to a judge for rejecting a review petition filed by Khaira on quashing his summoning by a Fazilka court over his alleged links with drug smugglers. 

The parties first tried to raise the matter during the Question Hour but were not allowed to do so. Later, at the outset of the Zero Hour, Khaira demanded a CBI inquiry.  Demanding a discussion, he even named a senior Akali and Congress leader behind the conspiracy against him.

However, Speaker Rana KP Singh said it was a judicial matter. CM Capt Amarinder remained silent on the issue. AAP MLA Kanwar Sandhu backed the arguments of Khaira, saying the scandal was an expose and not a judicial issue. The demands by both the MLAs drew an angry response from the Akali Dal MLAs, who raised slogans against AAP MLAs and their suspicious links.

Meanwhile, Sandhu demanded tabling of the report of a Special Investigation Team into the role of links of politicians with drug smugglers.