Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (LG) VK Saxena has referred the Vigilance Department’s request to Delhi Assembly Speaker, seeking prosecution sanction against Akhilesh Pati Tripathi, Model Town MLA from the AAP in a bribery case, a Raj Niwas official said. Tripathi is accused of demanding Rs 90 lakh bribe for securing an AAP ticket to a woman aspirant in the 2022 MCD elections. A complaint in this regard was lodged by the woman’s husband, following which the ACB registered a case. The incident came to light after Gopal Khari, who claimed to be an active AAP worker since 2014 approached the ACB with the complaint.

No immediate reaction was available from the AAP or Tripathi on the development while Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor has written to the Delhi Assembly Speaker, urging him to act as per constitutional propriety and allow prosecution of the MLA.

Three people, including the MLA’s brother-in-law Om Singh, Shiv Shankar Pandey alias Vishal Pandey (Personal Assistant of Tripathi) and Prince Raghuvanshi were arrested on November 16, last year in the matter. In November 2022, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court had granted bail to Shiv Shankar Pandey, who is Tripathi’s personal assistant.

Pandey was arrested from the complainant’s residence where he had allegedly gone to return the “bribe money” after the woman did not get the AAP ticket from the Kamla Nagar ward, officials of the Anti-Corruption Branch said.

“The Vigilance Directorate has found that the evidence — both human and technical — strongly indicated serious complicity of the MLA and other persons in the case,” they added.

Officials said the ACB has made a strong case against Tripathi in which there was a red-handed seizure of money and confirmatory statements by the other accused. “The CCTV footage at the house of Wazirpur AAP MLA Rajesh Gupta at about 1.30 AM on November 12, 2022 shows the complainant leaving. The CCTV footage also indicates the arrival of Tripathi at Gupta’s residence and his presence there for a while,” he said. All the accused confessed during the investigation that Tripathi gave Rs 33 lakh in cash to return to the husband of the aspirant.

Saxena, while referring the matter to Goel, noted that the Speaker is the competent authority to grant prosecution sanction in the case as the accused is a sitting MLA.

The Supreme Court verdict in the PV Narasimha Rao versus CBI (1998) case also held that the Speaker’s sanction is needed for prosecution of MPs and MLAs for offences made under the Prevention of Corruption Act as they are public servants for the purpose of the law, the officials added.