The Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said that the recent arrests by the Anti-Corruption Bureau "prove" that AAP does not sell tickets.
"Even if someone is paying money for a ticket and someone else is taking it, tickets are not sold in AAP. This is what this sequence of events has proven. Someone paid money for a ticket and someone took it as well, but none was actually sold, this proves that the tickets are not sold in AAP," party leader Manish Sisodia said addressing the media persons in the national capital.
While making the remarks above, the Delhi Deputy CM exuded confidence for its victory in the upcoming MCD elections slated to be held on December 4.
"The BJP in Delhi is aware that it is losing and AAP is winning the MCD elections. It is everywhere that AAP will win the MCD polls with the absolute majority, hence it is obvious that the tickets were in demand and many people wanted to contest for these elections," he asserted.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the national capital on Tuesday arrested three persons for allegedly accepting a bribe in exchange for a ticket for the MCD elections that are slated to be held on December 4.
It had arrested one Om Singh, who has been reported to be the brother-in-law of the Model Town MLA Akhilesh Pati Tripathi and his associates Shiv Shankar Pandey alias Vishal Pandey (Tripathi's Personal Assistant) and Prince Raghuvanshi after an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker Gopal Khari accused them of demanding and accepting a bribe for providing an election ticket for the MCD elections for his wife.
The accused persons have been arrested under sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 171 (E) of the Indian Penal Code.
The police informed that the complainant Gopal Khari approached ACB on Monday with the grievance that he met with Akhilesh Pati Tripathi with the request to secure the ticket for AAP Councilor from ward number 69 of Kamla Nagar for his wife Shobha Khari.
The complainant has alleged that the accused persons demanded Rs 90 lakh for the same and he had already paid Rs 35 lakh to Tripathi and Rs 20 lakh to Wazirpur MLA Rajesh Gupta, while the remaining Rs 35 lakh was to be paid after receiving the ticket, the police said. Khari added that later, he could not find his wife's name in the November 12 released list of candidates, says the police.
According to the police, Gopal Khari in his complaint mentioned that Om Singh had contacted him after the AAP's list of candidates for MCD elections was released on November 12 and promised to provide him with an election ticket in the next elections. He also offered to return the bribe money he had already taken, the complainant added.
Khari had also submitted audio and video recordings of the alleged deals made during the bribe payment, which are being scanned by the police team.
The team of Anti-Corruption Bureau laid a trap at the residence of Khari and caught the trio red-handedly. According to the police, the accused persons had come to return the bribe amount on the behalf of Model Town MLA.
( With inputs from ANI )
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