Duped by a local couple of rupees to the tune of crores invested in what is known as community kittie, those at the receiving end of things have taken to social media to vent their anger. lending a further twist to the matter, allegations have been doing rounds for a couple of days in the social media that some BJP leaders, including the senior Cabinet Minister Madan Kaushik, are behind this kittie fund scam. This after the ‘kittie queen’ Gurpreet Kaur had been arrested by police with her husband being on the run.
On the social media, a new post by one of the allegedly duped persons is being posted every hour, saying, “paise kab milengey wapis”. Interestingly, a case had been registered against Gurpreet last year at Jwalapur police station by one Rakhi Sajwan who had alleged that Gurpreet had been running illegal business in the name of kittie party. However, things had ended abruptly with the police having submitted a closure report while giving her a clean chit without recording any statement from those who had lodged the complaint.
The arrest had followed scores of the allegedly deceived staging a demonstration around the residence of the state cabinet minister Madan Kaushik on Wednesday, demanding the arrest of the couple. Savinder Singh and his wife Gurpreet Kaur allegedly used to operate the group Kitty at the hall of a restaurant booked by them at Sardar Sahib GIG Mall. Interestingly, Gurpreet by virtue of her holding a post of vice-president of state BJP’s women wing had roused confidence among the kittie members to participate in the kittie party. Gurpreet, said to be close to Kaushik, had been seen with Kaushik when the mall had been inaugurated a few months ago.
Embarrassingly enough for the saffron party, the charge of some of its leaders’ involvement in the kittie scam has come barely a month after a woman leader of the party had been arrested by Roorkee police for running a sex racket in Haridwar.
Speaking to The Pioneer, SP city Mamta Vohra confirmed that they had arrested Gurpreet and registered a case against her husband Savinder Singh after she had told them of the business being run by her husband and father-in-law. “ She also told us that she has obtained a divorce some days ago. While her husband is absconding her father-in-law is sick. We are however probing whether her statement of obtaining a divorce is true or not,” she said.
It is learnt that around 20,000 members were registered with the ‘GIG Kittie’ while a monthly membership of Rs 1,000 each. As per sources, there were 100 groups and almost every day parties were arranged at hotels and restaurants where the money deposited was handed over to the winner through lottery.
One of the alleged victims of the matter, Amita Khurana from Govind Puri said that the onus of giving back their hard-earned money was lying on Madan Kaushik whom they had elected to the Assembly. “It is more so as the lady has deceived us while flaunting the post she is holding in the ruling party and her proximity to the minister,” she said.
The controversy generating heat with Congress coming into the scene with alacrity, Kaushik has flatly denied having known Gurpreet personally. “Hundreds of people come to me daily as I am a minister and an MlA. But if any wrong is done by someone the wrongdoer would not be spared by law,” he said.