A week after his close aide Rashim Garg was held red-handed for accepting Rs four lakhs bribe, Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Thursday arrested Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amit Rattan Kotfatta in the same matter — with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann making it clear that the State Government would not tolerate corruption in any form.
Kotfatta was arrested early in the morning while he was traveling toward Haryana. He has been sent to five-day police remand till February 27 after he was produced in a Bathinda court in the afternoon. The Vigilance claimed that his remand is required to interrogate both the accused and wanted to cross-examine them.
On February 16, his close aide Garg was held in Bathinda Circuit House on the basis of a complaint by Pritpal Kumar — husband of Seem Rani, sarpanch of Ghuda village under Sangat block in Bathinda district. Currently, Garg is in police remand till February 24.
The complainant alleged that Garg was demanding a bribe of Rs five lakh from his wife in lieu for releasing a government grant of Rs 25 lakh from BDPO Sangat to Gram Panchayat Ghuda, but they didn't want to pay bribe for this work. It was further alleged that the accused has already taken Rs 50,000 as a bribe by compelling him and demanding the remaining money.
After the preliminary investigation of the said complaint, the Vigilance Bureau laid a trap and arrested the said accused red-handed in the presence of two official witnesses while accepting a bribe of Rs four lakh as a second instalment from the complainant.
The complainant claimed that when he went to give the bribe to Garg at Circuit House, the MLA was sitting inside a room. Garg allegedly took the money and when he was about to leave the Circuit House in his vehicle, Bureau officials stopped him and recovered the money from his vehicle.
A two-minute audio, “leaked” by the complainant later, of a purported conversation between Kumar, Kotfatta, and Garg, in which money was allegedly being sought by the MLA, had also gone viral on the social media.
It has been learnt that MLA’s arrest came after the Bureau matched the voice samples of that audio and that of the MLA.
At the time of Garg’s arrest, Kotfatta had categorically denied having any association with him. However, in the FIR lodged on the same day, Kumar had repeatedly mentioned that he had met Garg and the MLA together.
Bribery by anyone won’t be tolerated: CM
After Kotfatta’s arrest, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, without naming anyone, tweeted that his government would not tolerate corruption in any form. “Bribery by anyone...in anyway…will not be tolerated...the faith, the love, hopes and love of the people of Punjab keeps me up…there is no mercy on those who eat people’s tax money. Law is equal for all,” he tweeted in Punjabi.
Kotfatta: Not New To Controversy
A former member of Shiromani Akali Dal, Kotfatta had unsuccessfully contested 2017 Vidhan Sabha polls on Akali Dal’s ticket from Bathinda Rural in the 2017 against AAP’s first-timer Rupinder Kaur Ruby by a margin of 10,718 votes. But in June 2020, he was expelled from the SAD on the charges of duping party members and voters of Bathinda Rural on the pretext of giving them business opportunities. Later, Kotfatta joined AAP in January 2022; and days after, he secured party ticket.
