Senior officials said the Delhi Police on Monday questioned former minister Rajendra Pal Gautam over his presence at a religious conversion event where Hindu deities were allegedly denounced, and he would be questioned again on October 11 .
Gautam, however, asked why the Delhi Police did not act against BJP MP Parvesh Verma over his provocative remarks intended to “terrorize” the Muslim community.
AAP leader, who resigned Delhi cabinet After the controversy over his participation in the program, he said on Sunday that he has not received any notice for questioning on Tuesday, but if he is called again, he will follow it.
“I was questioned today at 4 pm. They asked me about the nature of the program and how it was organized.
“I have not been called tomorrow. I am a lawyer and if they call me I will go. I follow the law and if I have committed any crime, you can file a case and arrest me. If I haven’t, you can question me,” he told the news agency. PTI,
Gautam said that he was not told whether any case had been registered in the matter.
“I’ll give them sweets complainant If I am arrested,” he said.
“He has been issued a notice to appear for questioning along with some others on Tuesday,” a senior police officer said.
“He was also questioned today about his alleged presence at the event. We have sent him a notice to join the investigation on Tuesday as well and we have got his approval as well,” he said.
He said details would be sought from him about what actually happened there.
The BJP had used the issue to attack AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during the election campaign in Gujarat and accused him of being “anti-Hindu”.
Gautam on Monday hit back by raising the issue of BJP’s West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma’s alleged speech at a Sunday program where he had called for a “complete boycott” of a community.
”Why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah Quiet on this. Is such a statement not terrorist activity? When will Delhi Police take action? We are waiting for this,” the AAP leader said in a tweet in Hindi.
In a letter shared on Twitter, Gautam had said that he attended the event in his personal capacity and it had nothing to do with his party or ministry.
He hit out at the BJP for targeting Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and alleged that the saffron party was doing “dirty politics” on the issue.
The controversy started last week after a video went viral in which Gautam is seen at an event on October 5, where hundreds of people took a pledge to embrace Buddhism and not worship Hindu deities as gods.
Gautam, who was the social welfare, SC and ST minister, registrar of cooperative societies and gurdwara elections, said he was resigning as the minister as he did not want his leader or AAP to be in trouble because of him.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
catch all business News, market news, today’s fresh news events and breaking news Updates on Live Mint. download mint news app To get daily market updates.