Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Matiala Gulab Singh was arrested by a Delhi Police team in Surat on Sunday for his alleged links with an extortion ring the police had busted last month.
The arrest of Mr. Singh, also the party’s Gujarat convener, came just before the AAP’s scheduled rally in that State. The Matiala MLA is also the 15th AAP legislator to be arrested since the party assumed power last year.
Joint Commissioner of Police (South Western Range) Dependra Pathak said the arrest was made executing the non-bailable warrant issued by a city court last week.
Mr. Pathak further said the investigations so far have revealed that the extortion racket was being run on the direction of Singh.
On September 13, two property dealers Deepak Sharma and Rinku Diwan approached the police.
They alleged that three persons barged into their Bindapur office and tried to extort Rs.1.5 lakh from them. Mr. Diwan was allegedly thrashed when he raised an alarm. They, however, managed to draw the attention of the locals. Two persons were nabbed from the spot, even as the MLA’s driver Devender managed flee.
Devender was arrested later and the car, which the MLA acknowledged belonged to his office, was seized. Mr. Singh had then claimed that Devender was tricked into accompanying the other two accused, identified as Satish and Jagdish. Jagdish is a former Army man, while Satish allegedly worked at the MLA’s office. Mr. Singh acknowledged that Satish had worked at his office during the last Assembly polls, but claimed he was no longer involved with the AAP
Contrary to this, Mr. Pathak said that Mr. Singh supervised every step of the extortion business. : “We have evidence to prove that Mr. Singh was active in identifying the illegal constructions through Right to Information (RTI) and other means. Once having evidence that norms were violated, they offered the builder the choice to either pay up or getting the building demolished,” said Mr. Pathak.
