Sexual Misconduct Allegation | ‘His crime heinous, Kataruchak does not have right to stay in Cabinet’: Punjab Gov to Mann

“Through you (media), I again want to bring to notice of the chief minister that action be taken against this minister immediately,” he added, while responding to a specific query from the media on the Punjab minister.
Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira, who was the first to handed over a CD containing “highly objectionable video clips of gross misconduct” of “an AAP minister” to the Governor, was quick to react to the development.

“Now even Governor, the constitutional head of the government, has categorically and publicly admonished” CM Mann “to drop tainted minister Kataruchak”, Khaira tweeted. He said, “If there’s an iota of morality and ethics left in (AAP national convenor and Delhi CM) Arvind Kejriwal…if he has the littlest faith in Constitution and democracy and morality in politics.. he should dismiss and arrest the accused minister”.

The Governor’s remarks comes a day after Mann reshuffled his Cabinet, inducting two new ministers while one minister resigned citing personal reasons. The minister who resigned, Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar — there are reports that he was asked to put in his papers — had courted controversy for defending in public Barjinder Singh Hamdard, the editor-in-chief of ‘Ajit’ newspaper, after the latter was summoned by the Vigilance Bureau in connection with a probe into
alleged misuse of funds for a freedom fighters’ memorial.

By retaining Kataruchak in the Cabinet, the AAP government had sent out a message that it was firmly standing with him. On being asked, a government functionary had told The Indian Express that the allegation “against Kataruchak” is “a dead issue now” as it was was about a relationship between two (consenting) adults”.

With the Governor raising the issue again, it appears that the issue may not be dead yet.

The AAP government is facing flak over the issue with the opposition parties demanding action against Kataruchak.
Earlier, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) had issued a notice to the Punjab government following a complaint of “sexual misconduct” lodged by a 30-year-old male victim against Kataruchak. The NCSC had asked the Punjab chief secretary and the director general of police to investigate the matter and submit an action taken report. The Punjab Police had then formed a three-member special investigation team to look into the “sexual misconduct” charge against the minister.

The minister had allegedly approached the victim, who is from a Schedule Caste (SC) “by sending him a friend request on Facebook in 2013-14 and when he accepted it, Kataruchak allegedly started making advances”, the NSCN had said quoting from the victim’s complaint.

“Since he was an influential person, he had promised me a government job due to which I remained mum. I was too young at that time to understand anything. But, his sexual excesses continued till 2021. However, he met me for the last time on Diwali in 2021 and he neither provided me with a job, nor met me after that,” the victim had claimed.

Earlier, Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira had handed over a CD containing “highly objectionable video clips of gross misconduct” of “an AAP minister” to the Governor. However, he had not named the minister. The CD was sent for forensic examination. Later Purohit had forwarded the forensic report of Kataruchak’s “objectionable” video to Mann.

According to a report, the video was not morphed.
NCSC chairperson Vijay Sampla had earlier cautioned Punjab officers that if action taken report is not received within the stipulated time, then Commission might exercise the powers of the civil court conferred on it under article 338 of the Constitution of India and issue summons for their personal appearance in Delhi.

Meanwhile, Governor Purohit said he will be visiting border districts of Punjab on June 7 and 8. Besides talking to villagers, he is also likely to hold meetings with representatives of central agencies and state security agencies.
Purohit had earlier also visited the border districts and expressed concern over the drug problem.

Replying to a question on the issue of drugs in Punjab, he said an improvement is visible while referring to media reports on seizure of narcotics.