Uttarakhand minister’s husband seeks probe into wife’s alleged Rs 210-crore assets
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The husband of Uttarakhand Women and Child Development Minister Rekha Arya has urged Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to order an investigation into her alleged accumulation of illegal assets worth Rs 210 crore, while also asking her to withdraw the FIR she lodged against him over allegations of physical assault, harassment and caste-based abuse.
Girdhari Lal Sahu made the demands in a video released on Friday, a day after the BJP leader accused him of assaulting and harassing her, using caste-based slurs and threatening to kill her.
Although Sahu called for a probe by an appropriate agency into the alleged corruption, he produced no documentary evidence to substantiate his claims and said he would disclose details in the near future.
He also dismissed as “fake, AI-generated and fabricated” an audio recording shared by Arya, which she suspects contains a conversation between Sahu and another woman about a plot to kill her. Claiming that the recording was intended to create discord within the family, he urged the minister to retract her statements and withdraw the complaint.
In the video, apparently filmed inside a car, Sahu accused Arya of becoming arrogant after assuming public office and claimed that he had managed her election campaigns and campaigned for her for 17 years.
“You are being arrogant on the basis of the belief that you will remain a minister or an elected representative all your life,” he said, warning her that life was full of ups and downs. He also asserted that his contribution to her political rise was widely known across Uttarakhand and cautioned that she would be held accountable if she refused to withdraw her allegations.
Arya lodged an FIR against Sahu at the Cantt police station in Dehradun on Thursday, invoking relevant legal provisions, including three sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
In her complaint dated October 15, she alleged that Sahu had concealed an earlier marriage, assaulted and threatened her, and used forged documents to remove her from directorships in certain companies. She was admitted to hospital on Friday after her health deteriorated, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Congress demanded an impartial investigation, with spokesperson Garima Mehra Dasauni describing the matter as deeply distressing and calling for a forensic examination of the audio recording.