Arunachal CM refutes corruption allegations against him, terms it politically motivated

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu today said that the corruption allegations levelled against him are politically motivated.

This is Chief Minister Khandu’s first statement after the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Arunachal Pradesh government seeking response to a PIL which alleged that high-value public work contracts in the state were awarded to firms owned by his family members and relatives.

According to the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister, there is nothing concrete about the allegations and that the Gauhati High Court has already given him a clean chit in the same case.

Responding on the matter, CM Khandu said, “This matter has been with the Supreme Court since 2010 and now it is 2024, it is 14 years now. The allegations which were levelled against me, we fought a case, and we won it after a double bench of the Gauhati High Court ruled in our favour. So this is all politically motivated.”

The Arunachal Pradesh CM maintained that he has been trying to dispose the case in the Supreme Court and believes that it will happen soon.

“I tried to dispose the case in the Supreme Court with the help of my lawyers, but since there are many cases with the apext court, so it is yet to be disposed. But fortunately the proceedings for the case has been fast tracked, it will be disposed soon. The allegations are totally fake, there is nothing substantial about it,” CM Khandu further said.

On January 29, the apex court sought responses from the Centre, the Arunachal Pradesh government and others on the PIL that seeks for a CBI or SIT probe into the allegations against the Chief Minister.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by NGOs, Save Mon Region Federation and the Voluntary Arunachal Sena have made Pema Khnadu’s father Dorjee Khandu’s second wife, Rinchin Drema and his nephew Tsering Tashi, parties in the case. The PIL claimed that Drema’s firm Brand Eagles, has been awarded a large number of government contracts despite there being a conflict of interest.