Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ridiculed Congress on Sunday for appointing AICC secretary Asha Kumari as in-charge of its Punjab party affairs who was sentenced to jail merely four months ago for grabbing forest land by forging wills and revenue records in her home state Himachal Pradesh. On June 15 senior congress leader Kamal Nath was forced to quit the aforesaid post after AAP accused him of his objectionable role in the 1984 Sikh genocide in Delhi. Feeling the heat from the various Sikh organisations Nath had to quit the post after merely two days of his appointment.Senior AAP leader and In-Charge of party’s affairs in Punjab, Sanjay Singh said that though it was an internal matter of the congress party and hence very much within its right to appoint anyone in charge of the Punjab party affairs.
"However, it appears as if congress has completely gone bankrupt of choices of finding one clean person with unblemished record to lead the party in Punjab. The party seem to have no option but to bank upon tainted or corrupt leaders who are either involved in anti Sikh massacre or have been jailed by court for land grabbing", said Singh.Singh while referring to the media reports revealed that the Chamba court on February 26 had sentenced All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and Dalhousie MLA Asha Kumari to one-year jail in a land grab case dating back to 1998. Asha Kumari, a former state education minister, was accused of manipulating revenue records, fabricating wills and transferring 60 bighas of government forest land in the name of her late husband, Brijender Singh. The court of special judge Padam Singh found Kumari guilty of criminal conspiracy and handed down the jail term besides slapping a fine of Rs 8,000, added AAP Punjab Convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur while quoting the media reports.
The case against Asha Kumari and others, including her late husband Brijendra Singh, was registered on a basis of a complaint filed by a resident of Chamba Kuldeep Singh, who had alleged that Kumari and others had forged the revenue records, fabricated wills and tampered with revenue entries to grab a portion the forest land to their names, especially Brijender Singh in 1998.Chottepur however quipped, considering Punjab Congress Chief, Captain Amarinder Singh himself facing two major corruption cases comprising of multi crore Ludhiana city centre scam and Amritsar Improvement Trust Land scam, corruption seem to be a non issue for the congress party. "Even Amarinder's congress MLA wife Preneet Kaur and son Raninder Singh are facing probe from ED and IT departments for transferring crores into the switzerland bank accounts when he was chief minister of Punjab", said Chottepur while adding that Amarinder had even defended Nath's appointment.