BJP's Sheetal Angural stops short of releasing ‘extortion’ proof against Punjab CM’s kin, MLA

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, July 4

A day after being dared by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to produce evidence of alleged extortion against his family and AAP MLA Raman Arora ahead of July 10 high-stakes Jalandhar West bypoll, BJP candidate Sheetal Angural today stopped short of releasing the audio recordings to the media, saying he would first share these with Mann. Accepting CM’s challenge yesterday of releasing the evidence against AAP leaders “right now instead of July 5”, Angural had promised to do so at 2 pm on Thursday. Mann’s dare came after Angural went live on Facebook to allege Arora had sought money in the name of CM’s family, specifically his wife and sister.

At Babu Jagjivan Ram Chowk here today, the BJP put up two chairs — one for the CM and the second for Angural — with a banner in the backdrop saying “truth will prevail over lies today”. After keeping the media waiting for nearly an hour, with no sign of CM Mann, Angural wielding a small gift box containing a pen drive said: “I will share this with the CM first and then with you.”

Angural claimed the “gift for the CM” contained evidence against Arora and CM’s family. He broke down claiming the day he had gone live on Facebook, he got a call from a Pakistan number threatening to kill his daughter and son.

Angural sought an inquiry into the recordings and said he would ensure the CM got the evidence. “The CM should order a probe by a senior official. If the evidence is false, you may act against me too,” he said.

Referring to the CM, Angural said: “Mann ji, I was also an MLA, Balkar Singh and Inderjit Kaur are MLAs too, but why does your sister only visit Arora’s house? Why doesn’t she visit other workers’ houses? Because they are poor? Instead of accepting your mistake or acting against the MLA, you dared me. The fear of defeat is evident.”

“I waited for you with evidence, but you didn’t show up. This means the CM supports illegal businesses. If your party was honest, you should have come and taken the evidence. But I will make sure this ‘gift’ reaches the CM,” he added.