5-day remand for MLA Raman Arora in graft case
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raman Arora was remanded in five-day custody of the Vigilance Bureau by Judicial Magistrate First Class Reetbrinder Singh Dhillon on Saturday. He was arrested by the bureau on corruption charges on Friday. The Vigilance Bureau (VB) had sought his 10-day remand.
Lawyer Darshan Dyal pleaded on behalf of Arora, while Rishi Bhardwaj appeared as public prosecutor. Both sides argued for about half an hour. Later, interacting with the media, Dyal said, “The MLA has been arrested on the basis of a statement by arrested Assistant Town Planner (ATP) of the Municipal Corporation Sukhdev Vashisht. The bureau has claimed to have seized 1 kg of gold and silver ornaments and Rs 6 lakh cash from the MLA’s house. We argued that the MLA had already disclosed these assets in the affidavit filed ahead of the 2022 elections. We argued that he had by no means generated these assets after becoming the MLA.”
The files shown to have been seized from the MLA’s place could have been planted there as the ATP was already in the VB remand. He said the case was more of political vendetta as there were media reports that Arora might move to the BJP.
Arora’s name was added to the FIR registered against ATP Sukhdev Vashisht under the Prevention of Corruption Act on May 14 following a complaint by Sunil Katyal, president of the Engineers and Building Designer Association, Jalandhar.
A VB press note issued on Friday had mentioned that the arrested ATP, in consultation with Arora, would identify constructed or under-construction buildings, both commercial as well as residential, and serve notices on their owners for alleged violation of building bylaws and then seek money for scrapping those notices.
Around 80 fake notices issued through Vashisht in the Jalandhar Central Assembly segment have been traced by the VB. There were no entries regarding these notices in the dispatch register of the building branch of the MC.
