New Delhi: In a surprising move, the AAP today approached the Anti-Corruption Branch against Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, accusing him of "misusing office" to favour former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala over a parole request made by him.
The LG office yesterday had rubbished the allegations, claiming that the charges were being made as the LG had declined a request by Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain for withdrawal of 24 cases registered against AAP leaders, including CM Arvind Kejriwal, pending in various courts .
In a letter to the ACB chief, the party alleged "quid pro quo" in the dealings of parole of Chautala, who has been convicted in a corruption case, and demanded a probe into the LG's role in the matter.
"The LG, being a constitutional position, has misused his office to provide benefit to a Sh. O P Chautala, in both May, 2015 as well as on October, 2015. There are concerns about quid pro quo in the dealings of parole of O P Chautala and the role of LG needs to be thoroughly probed," the letter, signed by AAP leader Ashutosh, Delhi unit convenor Dilip Pandey and treasurer Raghav Chadha, said.
"The Hon'ble LG's personal, rather strange, intervention in a routine matter of parole request, is an attempt to provide benefit to a convict (Chautala) who has been convicted and awarded exemplary punishment on serious grounds of corruption, by the judiciary," the letter added.
Incidentally, AAP has been highly critical of ACB and its functioning and was even at loggerheads with Jung over the appointment of M K Meena as it chief.
The war of words between Jung and AAP over the parole controversy had escalated yesterday with the Delhi government questioning how he knew about a second parole plea by Chautala without the file reaching his office.
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The party has been alleging that Jung was showing "undue interest" in Chautala getting parole and had also pressured Jain in this regard.
To this, Jung had hit back with his office saying Jain had requested him of withdrawing 24 cases registered against the AAP leaders including the Chief Minister.
Though Jung's office did not mention about any second parole plea by Chautala, it claimed that the LG had come to know about it "informally" and had mentioned it during a meeting with Jain on October 21.
After Jung had dismissed the charges saying Chautala's parole plea had been rejected on October 5, the AAP government had dared the LG to deny that the "pressure" on Jain was based on another parole plea.
Chautala, his son and three others are serving ten years imprisonment in teachers' recruitment racket case.
