Mired in extortion row, Punjab minister Fauja Singh Sarari resigns

Punjab Horticulture Minister Fauja Singh Sarari resigned from the Cabinet on Saturday (January 7), four months after an audio clip purportedly suggesting an “extortion plan” surfaced.

Sarari sent his resignation to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann who is learnt to have accepted it, sources said. He will be replaced by Patiala Rural MLA Dr. Balbir Singh in the Cabinet, though he is likely to get different portfolios.

Sarari was inducted into the Cabinet in July last year. However, he courted controversy in September when an audio clip went viral, wherein the minister was reportedly heard discussing an extortion plan to trap foodgrain transporters.

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Interestingly, it was his close aide-turned-foe Tarsem Lal Kapoor who leaked the audio. The minister defended himself, contending that the audio clip was doctored.

Earlier, Sarari was served a show-cause notice by Mann, who is also the state chief of Aam Aadmi Party. However, Sarari had not replied to the notice, fuelling speculation that he has got political immunity due to his close ties with the party leadership in Delhi.

Moreover, he had been firm in his stand all through that he has done no wrong. His resignation now is being seen by many as a way to give him an “honourable exit” rather than dropping him from the Cabinet.

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Incidentally, Sarari has become the second minister in the AAP government to lose his place in the cabinet in just over nine months of the party’s rule. Earlier, Dr. Vijay Singla was dropped from the cabinet over alleged corruption charges.