Four months after an audio clip purportedly suggesting an “extortion plan” surfaced, Punjab horticulture, food processing and defence services welfare minister Fauja Singh Sarari on Saturday resigned from the state cabinet.
Sarari sent his resignation to chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who is learnt to have accepted it, according to highly placed sources. A first-time MLA from Patiala is likely to be sworn in as cabinet minister in his place.
The 61-year-old minister was in the eye of the storm ever since the audio clip of a conversation purportedly between him and a close aide regarding a plan to allegedly “trap” some contractors with the help of government officials to extort money went viral on social media.
Though the minister has repeatedly denied the allegations, claiming that the audio was “doctored” to frame him, his ouster from the cabinet was considered inevitable in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) circles after the party issued him a show-cause notice. A retired police inspector, he is a first-time MLA from Guru Har Sahai.
Sarari is the second cabinet minister to lose his place in the Bhagwant Mann cabinet. In May 2022, Mann had sacked his health minister Dr Vijay Singla over charges of corruption.
