AAP councillor among 7 booked under Gambling Act in CAPITAL

New Delhi: An AAP councillor was among the seven individuals held in connection with an illegal betting racket, which was busted in the Swaroop Nagar area of outer north Delhi, an official said on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, a team from the Swaroop Nagar Police Station conducted a raid and booked seven people allegedly involved in gambling activities under Sections 3 (penalty for owning or keeping, or having charge of, a gaming-house) and four (penalty for being found in a gaming-house) of the Public Gambling Act, 1867.

Among those named in the case is Joginder Singh, alias Bunty, a sitting municipal councillor from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), police sources said.

A senior police officer confirmed that Singh’s name surfaced during the initial investigation, and further inquiry is underway to determine his involvement.

His arrest triggered a war of words between the AAP and the BJP. Reacting to the incident, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva stated that a new face of the Aam Aadmi Party leaders has emerged ever since the party lost power in the national capital.

He questioned former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and AAP’s Delhi President Saurabh Bharadwaj, asking whether the councillor would be expelled from AAP or if the matter would be dismissed again as a ‘BJP conspiracy’.

The Delhi BJP chief further claimed that Singh, who was arrested allegedly with Rs 4.35 lakh in cash, is the same councillor who had brandished a revolver during the 2022 municipal election campaign, and was caught on video for the same. In response, the AAP said in a statement, “In the past decade, the BJP has created a situation where Central Govt agencies and its police register false cases on a daily basis against its political adversaries. Today, it’s difficult for anybody to comment on the merits of allegations if they come from any agency

under BJP’s control.”