CM pulled up senior officer for speaking to me: Amicus

Chandigarh: Senior advocate Anupam Gupta, who is the amicus curiae in cases related to violence during the jat stir for reservation and alleged incidents of rape near Murthal in February, asserted before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday that Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had "virtually abused" and "pulled up" additional chief secretary Vijai Vardhan for speaking to him on the issue.
Submissions from Gupta came in the open court of a division bench headed by Justice S S Saron during the hearing.
He said, "Vardhan, who was member of the Prakash Singh committee, was called over his phone by CM Khattar and pulled up for speaking to me."
According to Gupta, Vardhan was in a private hospital at the time to take care of his ailing father. Gupta made these assertions after additional solicitor general (ASG) of India Tushar Mehta requested the bench to make certain submissions 'in-camera' in relation to the alleged incidents of rape in Murthal.
Strongly objecting to the request, Gupta said it is a well-organized and well-crafted strategy of the Haryana government to keep the amicus away from case proceedings. He then said earlier, the CM had abused Vardhan for speaking to him.
The bench, however, refused to intervene in the matter observing that it would not interfere on any issue which has taken place out of court.
When contacted, Vardhan, additional chief secretary (labour), termed Gupta's statement about him as "highly irresponsible".
He said he was absolutely shocked when he heard about it. "If Gupta is not able to prove his case in court, he should not have resorted to such a method of dragging my name. The CM never called me on the issue. Even when I was member of the Prakash Singh committee, neither the CM nor any of his representatives spoke to me on any issue related to the inquiry. Even the term of reference of Prakash Singh committee was not to probe rape incidents. I am surprised how a lawyer of such high stature has made such a statement," Vijay Vardhan said.
When TOI spoke to Gupta about Vardhan's rebuttal, he said, "I would not like to speak on this issue out of the court but I stand with what I told the court".
On May 30, Gupta had claimed before the HC that proprietor of Sukhdev Dhaba at Murthal near Sonipat had 'admitted' before the Prakash Singh committee that women were violated during the Jat stir for reservation.
He had also sought directions to take affidavits from committee members.