Patra alleges Bharti’s hand in land-grab case, MLA hits back

New Delhi: BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Sunday accused AAP MLA Somnath Bharti of influencing a land-grabbing case in Jaitpur, in which an FIR was registered in Nov 2023.

Patra, at a press conference, played an audio clip in which a voice purportedly of Bharti is heard telling an investigating officer to destroy evidence. Bharti has denied the allegation.

Patra said that on Nov 10, 2023, a piece of land was illegally occupied in Jaitpur, and the person responsible for this act was reportedly a close associate of Bharti's. "Being a lawyer, Bharti made every possible effort to protect his associate. This entire conversation was captured in a sting operation, in which Bharti can be clearly heard saying, ‘take the money and forget the logic. Just tear up that memo'," Patra said.

He said the victim of the land-grabbing case filed an FIR, and the details were recorded in a seizure memo. "In this clip, Somnath Bharti is threatening the investigating officer to destroy the memo," Patra said.

"On the one hand, Arvind Kejriwal lives in a luxurious palace, while his MLAs are no less corrupt. It appears that scams have become synonymous with AAP leaders. Arvind Kejriwal always pretends to be innocent and deceives the public, but now the truth about his MLAs' actions has come to light," Patra added.

"The biggest asset of AAP is corruption, whether it is the Delhi Jal Board scam, the DTC bus scam, or any other scam. One of the major cases among these is land grabbing. It seems that land scams have become a business for AAP leaders," Patra said.

Bharti, in a response, said on X, "While I am in a massive roadshow going on in my assembly, I have heard that BJP is doing a press conference dragging my name in to a case of land grabbing which was actually done by their present MP Ram Bidhuri (Ramvir Singh) and I went to Delhi High Court pro bono and got a stay in the favour of Mahaveer Singh, super senior citizen." To that post, Bharti attached the case details and number.

AAP, in a response to Patra's allegations, said that "BJP has a history of running away after making false allegations. Apart from allegations and counter-allegations, they have no issue in Delhi. BJP has no issue for the people of Delhi. The position of BJP is that they do not even have a chief ministerial face."

The party said the "people of Delhi will teach a lesson to BJP. In this election, the broom button will be pressed so hard that electric shock will reach the BJP office."

AAP said that for the last several years, BJP has tried to "defame AAP and its leaders. All efforts have failed in the past and will fail in the future too."