Caught on camera: Samajwadi Party leader Narendra Bhati boasts he got IAS officer Durga suspended in 40 minutes
To a group of supporters, a politician brags that it took him "just 41 minutes" to have IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal suspended.
The swagger doesn't end there. Narendra Bhati then goes on to explain that he phoned both Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father, Mulayam Singh Yadav "at 10.30 am and by 11:11 am, she had been suspended." This, Mr Bhati says, proves "the power of democracy."
(Watch video here)The speech, filmed a day after the IAS officer was suspended, amplifies the controversy around the removal of Ms Nagpal, 28, from her post as Sub-Divisional magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar in the Noida area bordering Delhi. Mr Bhati is the Samajwadi Party's candidate for the next parliamentary election from here. He had recently said that he discovered the news of Ms Nagpal's suspension from the media, a claim that has been invalidated by the video of his speech.
Ms Nagpal's supporters say she has been suspended for taking on the powerful sand mining mafia in the area, a charge the chief minister denied on Thursday. He insisted that she had to be removed from office because she endangered communal harmony by ordering the demolition of a wall of a complex that was to house a new mosque.
But a report based on information from local police and administrative officials clears Ms Nagpal of the charges against her. It finds that villagers removed the contentious wall after she pointed out that clearances to build a religious building, as mandated by the Supreme Court, had not been taken.
The government disregarded the report before removing Ms Napgal last weekend.
Opposition parties allege that Mr Bhati was close to some mining mafia dons in the area, and that he used his political muscle to retaliate against the IAS officer.