CM demands over ₹1 cr. recovery from Kejriwal over ‘fake’ phansi-ghar

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Wednesday called for a thorough inquiry and demanded that the ₹1.04 crore spent by the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on a British-era “fake” ‘phansi-ghar’ (execution room) at the Delhi Assembly be recovered from former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Terming the move a “deception of people” and an “insult to martyrs”, Ms. Gupta said the installation was based on no official documentation and essentially a repurposed “tiffin room” falsely portrayed as a historic phansi-ghar to mislead the public.

During a discussion in the Assembly, she said an FIR should be registered against Mr. Kejriwal and the structure be removed before  August 25.

Noting that the phansi-ghar was inaugurated on August 9, 2022, Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta said the 1911-12 building map accessed from the National Archives clearly marked the space as a tiffin room. “I challenge AAP to find one historian who can verify it was an execution room,” he said.

‘Distortion of heritage’

“Such tiffin rooms are in other offices too. You will  know about them if you conduct an inquiry. Without any documents, it was declared as an execution room. We are ashamed of this. He [Kejriwal] had a disease of lying,” the CM said, terming it a “distortion of heritage”.

AAP legislator Sanjeev Jha said many execution rooms from the British era are not officially recorded and accused the ruling party of “standing with the British”.