BJP councillor illegally constructed hotel in Mahipalpur, claims AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday alleged that BJP councillor and Leader of the House in South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Inderjeet Sehrawat, has “illegally” constructed a hotel ‘The Orient’ in Mahipalpur and the hotel is working without any licence from the SDMC.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that Mr. Sehrawat has also “illegally” constructed the third and fourth floors of a DDA flat in Vasant Kunj, but the municipal corporation did not take any action on a complaint lodged regarding it. About the hotel, Mr. Bharadwaj said, “The High Court, too, has asked the municipal corporation to take action and submit an action report on it. If I show you the status of the construction today, the hotel has been fully constructed and is now ready. However, according to municipal corporation’s paperwork, this hotel has been booked and all the construction activities therein have been stopped. And according to the police report, this building has been demolished.”

The AAP leader claimed that this property is worth around ₹20 crore, but neither the property nor the hotel was mentioned by Mr. Sehrawat in his election affidavit.

In a related development, AAP leader Durgesh Pathak said that Delhi can be a world-class city only when both the Delhi government and the municipal corporations are governed by the AAP.

Mr. Pathak claimed that BJP’s internal survey is showing that they will get only 40-50 seats. “In the last elections, the people of Delhi had formed the BJP government in all three cities by giving 181 seats, but the BJP ruined the civic bodies. But this time the entire Delhi has decided that the BJP rule must end. That’s why in BJP’s internal survey it has been reported that they won’t get more than 45-50 seats,” he said.

‘BJP shocked’

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor termed “shocking” that AAP leaders were levelling “baseless charges” on BJP councilors to allegedly tarnish the BJP’s political image. “It is surprising that AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj is raising objections on a BJP councillor’s property which he has fully recorded and shown in his IT returns,” Mr. Kapoor said.

It was the IT Department’s job to assess the source of investment in properties shown by the councilor and of the Aam Aadmi Party, he said.

As far as the matter of unauthorised construction is concerned, Mr. Kapoor said, “I don’t believe in raising anyone’s personal issues publicly but if Saurabh Bharadwaj gives me a personal hearing, I can cite before him dozens of properties unauthorisedly constructed by a Delhi government Minister’s family members.”