Bhushan flays Kejriwal's claims of removing 'corrupt' minister

New Delhi: Civil Liberties activist and senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Saturday flayed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's claims of removing Food Minister Asim Ahmed Khan on grounds of corruption, questioning why such defector were given ticket in the elections.

"It is astounding that the credit is being given to Kejriwal for removing a corrupt minister who was appointed without any due diligence, despite being known as a defector. This is precisely the question that we were raising, over ticket distribution to political defectors and opportunists," Bhushan toldANI here.

"Kejriwal has removed his second minister from cabinet on grounds of corruption. These were people, who came from the Congress Party. Asim Khan joined the AAP before the 2015 elections, he had not joined the party in 2012 when the party was formed, not joined before the 2013 elections also," he added.

Bhushan further said that Kejriwal gave a ticket to such an opportunistic defaulter and then appointed him a cabinet minister without any due diligence.

"Same thing had happened with Jitendra Tomar, when the high court had issued notice on his fake degrees, but despite any due diligence, without checking that his degrees were fake or not, he was madse the cabinet minister," he added.

Kejriwal had called a press conference yesterday to announce that he was sacking Food Minister Ahmad Khan minister who had been caught asking for a bribe.

Khan had been accused of 'nexus with a builder', Kejriwal said, playing an audio recording of what he said was part of a one-hour conversation between the minister and the builder.

Kejriwal also said that he would ask for a CBI inquiry in the case.