Two Delhi Assembly officials today verified in a court here the documents related to the medical claim of nearly Rs 2 lakh allegedly taken by AAP MLA Akhilesh Pati Tripathi for his mother who was not dependent on him.
Metropolitan magistrate Ambika Singh, after recording the statements of Manoranjan and Hoshiyar Singh as witnesses, posted the matter for recording of further pre-summoning evidence on February 25. The court had on December 3, 2015 allowed the plea of advocate and complainant Vivek Garg, who had sought permission to examine two officials of Delhi Assembly and one Election Commission officer as witnesses in support of his complaint.
The court was hearing a complaint filed by Garg alleging that the MLA from Model Town constituency had committed an offence by getting his mother’s medical allowance reimbursed from Delhi government, despite his parents not being dependent on him and not entitled to the claims.
On November 4, 2015, the Delhi Police had told the court that the AAP leader had returned the money to the Assembly secretariat. In its status report, the police had told the court that Tripathi was interrogated and he stated that when he came to know that his father, being a pensioner, was not entitled to medical claim, he wrote a letter to the Assembly secretariat to know the rules and was asked to return the amount with interest, that is, around Rs two lakh on September 16.
Garg had told the court that the MLA accepted his crime by returning the money and now there was no need to lodge an FIR and he be directly put on trial. In his complaint, Garg had claimed that Tripathi, in two affidavits filed before the Election Commission during the 2013 and 2015 Assembly polls, had declared that his parents were not dependent on him.
He alleged that Tripathi had obtained a medical facility card under Delhi Government Employees Health Scheme and to obtain “wrongful gains”, he has disclosed in the card that his parents are dependent on him and can avail medical facility on the card of an MLA. Garg had sought registration of an FIR against Tripathi for alleged offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust by public servant, forgery for cheating and criminal conspiracy under IPC.
( Source – PTI )
