Vijender Gupta in trouble over CAG report leak issue

Indicting the Leader of Opposition in the House, Vijender Gupta, for the alleged leak of the CAG report, Delhi Assembly on Friday referred the matter to its privileges committee.

Claiming that the audit report on the AAP government’s advertisement spending was accessed and leaked to the media by Mr Gupta even before the finance secretary ‘officially’ received it from the lieutenant governor’s office, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said Mr Gupta ‘breached’ the Assembly’s privilege. In his defence, Mr Gupta said the AAP government is trying to quell the Opposition by falsely implicating him.

Earlier, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel cancelled a breach of privilege motion against Mr Sisodia moved by the leader of Opposition, alleging he didn’t give the right answer in the House on a Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on Wednesday. Rebutting the charges, Mr Sisodia said the special audit report reached him on Wednesday evening. He said even before he received the report, Mr Gupta leaked it to the media.

“Vijender Gupta had raised the issue of non-tabling of the CAG report in the house on August 24. Until then we had not received the report. We got it only by 5.30pm the same day. But I was surprised to find out that the report details were leaked to the media before it reached me,” Mr Sisodia told the Assembly. He said the report was lying with “three persons”: CAG, L-G of Delhi and the finance secretary of the Delhi government. “I trust the finance secretary as he gave me the report in a sealed envelope. But the question is who gave the report to Vijender Gupta This report was supposed to be tabled in the house,” the deputy CM said, pointing out that Mr Gupta had issued a press release stating some of the findings of the CAG report.

Before staging a walkout from the Assembly over the issue, Mr Gupta alleged that the House was functioning in an “unconstitutional” way. When asked about the issue at an event, L-G Najeeb Jung told reporters, “The process is very clear. It will be tabled in the Assembly where the MLAs will debate on it. Reports have been published in newspapers. Let’s see what the outcome is.”

The deputy CM challenged Mr Gupta to be ready for a discussion and not “run away.”