Why was Chhotepur silent on Kejriwal’s ‘anti-Sikh’ remarks: Shergill

Terming the allegations by Sucha Singh Chhotepur against AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on the Youth manifesto issue as “baseless”, head of legal cell of the party Himmat Singh Shergill on Sunday asked him why he remained silent over such ‘remarks’ earlier.

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“Timing of such serious allegations against Kejriwal by Chhotepur shows that when he (Chhotepur) was caught red-handed while accepting the ‘bribe’ of Rs two lakh on camera and he was exposed, he made such ‘baseless and false’ allegations against Kejriwal to divert attention from his sins”, he said

“Moreover, Chhotepur himself claimed that Kejriwal made such remarks on July 29 at Amritsar, then why did he keep quiet on such a serious issue for so many days?,” Shergill said, asking Chhotepur why he did not come out of the car after listening such “anti-Sikh” comments over which he claimed to got “stunned”.

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Chhotepur, who was removed as Punjab convenor by AAP in the wake of allegations that he took bribe from a ticket aspirant, had been asked to comment at a press conference here on Friday on party’s youth manifesto which courted controversy after the AAP party symbol (a broom) was superimposed on a picture of the Golden Temple.

“When Kejriwal came for service at the Golden Temple to atone for the manifesto cover (on which party symbol ‘broom’ next to Golden Temple had led to a row), he asked me why I had told the media that I didn’t know of the cover until it was released. I told him I had only spoken the truth. He said I should have owned it up as my fault,” Chhotepur had said.

On the allegations levelled against AAP MP Bhagwant Mann by Chhotepur, Shergill said that it was wrong to ‘defame’ any person by making baseless allegations.

Mann himself challenged everybody, including his political rivals Sukhbir Badal and Captain Amarinder Singh, for undergoing dope test, for which he volunteered to give his blood samples first, the AAP leader said.