JAIPUR: A video of suspended Jaipur Municipal Corporation, Greater, mayor Somya Gurjar’s husband allegedly making a deal with an employee of a sanitation company for his share of Rs 20 crore, from a bill cleared by the corporation, went viral on Thursday.
Following this, the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) decided to conduct a primary inquiry into the incident.
In the video, Gurjar’s husband Raja Ram Gurjar is allegedly seen sitting in the middle of a room wearing a mask along with the employees of the sanitation company.
“Whenever our amount is cleared, which is around Rs 276 crore, we need to pay penalty on that.
After that we will pay you Rs 20 crore.
Just get our payment passed within six months to one year and it will be done,” an employee can be heard allegedly saying in the video.
Raja Ram is then seen agreeing with the company employee.
ACB DG B L Soni said, “After seeing the video, we have decided to conduct a primary enquiry to ascertain the facts.
If things shown in the video are found to be genuine and true, this would be a case fit to be registered under Section 7A of Prevention of Corruption Act.” ACB will find the source of the video and will speak to Somya’s husband and others shown in the video to verify facts.
While the company employees switched off their mobile phones following the viral video, late night, the operations head of the company released a video saying that the firm never had any dealing with any person.
“We have had no conversation regarding exchange of money with any person or organisation ever.
All the news going on is false and we condemn it,” said Omkar Sapre, head of the company in Jaipur.
Somya Gurjar didn’t respond to calls from TOI.
Her husband Raja Ram, however, came to Sanganer police station late night on Thursday and gave a complaint to register an FIR against company official Sandeep Chaudhary.
But the cops turned him away as the matter was already pending investigation by ACB.
“The videos made viral on social media and news channels are false and made viral to malign the image of my family.
Officials of the company are behind this matter to make the fabricated video viral,” said Raja Ram in his complaint.
Meanwhile, TOI tried to contact state BJP president Satish Poonia regarding the controversy, but he didn’t respond.
In a statement, Congress leader Archana Sharma said, “I urge the BJP state leadership to form an inquiry committee under Opposition leader Gulab Chand Kataria, who will investigate the facts and expose the truth.
We also demand the government investigate the income, property of both the husband and wife by the ACB.
Congress member Giriraj Khandelwal called for an urgent investigation into the viral video as it smelled of a very serious corruption in JMC-Greater.
However, refuting all the charges, a BJP councillor said that it was not clear from the video if the masked person was Raja Ram.
“We do not know the authenticity of the video.
May be it is edited as no one is seen speaking because of the face masks,” said the councillor.
Watch On cam: Suspended Jaipur Municipal Corporation mayor’s hubby demanded Rs 20 crore share from a ‘deal’