Delhi Assembly committee accuses Anshu Prakash of lying before High Court

The Question and Reference Committee of Delhi Assembly on Sunday accused Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash of "lying" before the Delhi High Court. The committee alleged that Prakash lied with regard to a breach of privilege notice issued to him for allegedly skipping a meeting called by the panel.

Members of the committee are likely to initiate "forgery proceedings" against Prakash for misinforming the court.

On February 21, the panel recommended privilege proceedings against the chief secretary (CS) for contempt of House after he skipped the meeting called by the committee.

"We have learnt that the CS has moved the High Court challenging the breach of privilege notice served to him by accusing us of arm-twisting him in a matter related to alleged attack on him, but he is hiding the fact that the meeting was related to rising NPAs," AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, a member of the committee, said.

"This issue is going on for over a year. An MLA filed a complaint with the Question and Reference Committee when he was not given a satisfactory answer in the Delhi Assembly for a question related to rising NPAs and bank loans based on fraudulent papers in Delhi Nagrik Sarkari Bank," he said, adding that despite summoning the CS, present and former Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS), they did not turn up for the meeting for three consecutive days.

"Whoever is lying in the affidavit before the Delhi High Court, forgery proceedings should be initiated against him. We shall do the same," Bhardwaj said.

"The committee members challenge the CS to stick to the contents of his affidavit and not alter these contents. The chief secretary is clearly trying to shield those involved in the multi-crore scam, which appears to be on the lines of the Punjab National Bank scam," the committee said in a statement.

(With inputs from PTI)