Himachal BJP president Rajeev Bindal resigns amid health scam row

PTI, May 28, 2020, 1:57 PM IST

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajeev Bindal resigned from his post on Wednesday within four-and-a-half months of his appointment, saying he was doing so to ensure a proper investigation into the case of alleged corruption by a Health Department official.

In a resignation letter sent to BJP president J P Nadda, Bindal stated that he was tendering his resignation on high moral grounds as some people were dragging the party’s name in the alleged corruption case.

Health Services Director Ajay Kumar Gupta was arrested on May 20 by the State Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau after a 43-second audio recording went viral, in which he purportedly asks the other person for a bribe of Rs 5 lakh.

Gupta was placed under suspension by the state government after his arrest, an official said.

Bindal, who became state BJP president on January 18 after resigning from the post of assembly Speaker, said he resigned so that the case might be thoroughly investigated without any pressure.

The resignation has been accepted by the BJP president, the party said.

Bindal said that BJP had nothing to do with the alleged corruption, adding that the state government had acted promptly and took action against the health official.

Without naming anyone, he said dragging the BJP’s name in the case was “injustice to social service” done by the party during the coronavirus lockdown by distributing over five lakh food packets, 1.10 lakh ration kits and over 30 lakh face masks.

Reacting to the resignation, the Congress said that BJP cannot get rid of the “sin of corruption” in the Health Department amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The state Congress demanded that the probe into the scam should be entrusted to a sitting high court judge as it had no faith in the probe being conducted by the vigilance bureau.