Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena Paid "Ghost Artisans", Made Crores, Claims AAP

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena misappropriated crores of rupees making payments to "ghost artisans" when he was the chairman of the KVIC, AAP MP Sanjay Singh claimed on Wednesday, demanding his "immediate" sacking and a probe against him by the central agencies. 

Addressing a press conference, Mr Singh backed his claims referring to a 2016 Patna High Court order on payment of wages to artisans and findings of a CVC inquiry into alleged disbursement of crores of rupees to "ghost artisans".

As he made the allegations, he tore the defamation notice sent to him by the LG recently, saying such notices can neither intimidate him nor stop him from "telling the truth".

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader also asked Mr Saxena to respond to his allegations using his personal social media handle, saying the official handle of the Raj Niwas "belongs to the Delhi LG, not you".

"Delhi LG V K Saxena is a very corrupt and dishonest person. When he was the chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), he gobbled crores of rupees of at least 2.5 lakh workers, who did sewing and embroidery work, and turned the KVIC into a den of corruption," Mr Singh told reporters.

He demanded that the BJP-led Centre immediately sack Mr Saxena as the Delhi LG and order a probe by the CBI and the ED against him.

"If there is a little honesty in the (central) government, it should immediately remove such a corrupt LG and start a probe against him by the CI and ED. The LG should be arrested and sent to jail," the AAP national spokesperson added.

He also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him why Mr Saxena was appointed as the Delhi LG when he was "neck deep in corruption" while being at helm at the KVIC.

Mr Singh said Patna High Court, while hearing a petition moved by artisans against payment in cash paid to them by the KVIC, had ordered that artisans working with the cooperatives under the KVIC be paid either by cheque or directly in their bank accounts.

But the KVIC continued paying them in cash flouting its rules and the Patna High Court's order, he claimed.

"Rajendra Pratap Gupta, the then member of the khadi commission, tweeted on September 25, 2017, saying that he had got a complaint how KVIC was breaching the court's orders and making cash payments," he added.

Out of 4.55 lakh artisans, bank accounts of about 1.93 lakh artisans were opened and when the issue came to light, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) intervened and started an inquiry, Mr Singh said.

The AAP MP read out a certain portion of the CVC inquiry report in the matter, saying that it observed: "There were complaints that ghost artisans were present in the system as payment in cash worth crores were disbursed to unidentified persons without maintaining any proper record." 

When the CVC in its probe found that KVIC had issued a cheque worth Rs 3 crore to an artisan, it sought from the Council records of the cheques issued to the artisans.

"Interestingly, the (KVIC) officials told the CVC that cheques were destroyed as they had been damaged due to spilling of tea on them," Mr Singh said, adding "The CVC noted in its report that that the records related to issue of cheques were destroyed with mala fide intentions."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)