NEW DELHI: A day after Chief Minister Rekha Gupta asked for recovery from former CM Arvind Kejriwal, Rs 1.04 crore, his AAP government spent on a British-era “fake” ‘phansi-ghar’ in the Delhi Assembly, Speaker Vijender Gupta on Thursday said that he was referring the matter to the House Privileges Committee.
It will summon Kejriwal along with former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, ex-Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and former Deputy Speaker Rakhi Birla, he said.
The Speaker, in his statement, said that after several days of sustained discussion in the House, supported by verified facts and documents, it was established that crores of rupees were spent on constructing a fake gallows and disseminating misleading advertisements within the Delhi Legislative Assembly complex.
He said despite being given three days to present evidence justifying the expenses of building the structure, the AAP failed to do so. Their continued silence strengthened the conclusion that this was a deliberate and fraudulent act, he said.
In contrast, authenticated documents received from the National Archives of India—including a 1912 map of the Assembly premises—along with research conducted by various esteemed institutions collectively confirmed that no gallows ever existed in this building, nor was there any tunnel leading from the Assembly premises to the Red Fort, as falsely claimed, Gupta said.
“When the so-called gallows was constructed in 2022, coinciding with the commemoration of the Quit India Movement on 9 August, my own emotions—along with those of fellow opposition members—were stirred with patriotic sentiment. However, after assuming the office of Speaker, and upon receiving verified documents from credible research institutions and national archives, it became painfully clear that this so-called gallows was a complete fabrication,” added the Speaker.