Garhwal Post Bureau
Nainital, 28 Oct: The Uttarakhand High Court today declined to grant interim relief to Girdhari Lal Sahu, husband of Cabinet Minister Rekha Arya, in a petition seeking a stay on his arrest and quashing of the FIR registered against him. After hearing the matter, the court did not provide any immediate relief but instead referred the case to another Bench for further proceedings. The matter was heard by the single Bench of Justice Pankaj Purohit.
In his petition, Sahu contended that all the allegations levelled against him in the FIR are false and had claimed that he has been implicated in a fabricated case. He submitted that he married Rekha Arya in 2004 and that they have been living together since then. Referring to the allegations mentioned in the FIR, he argued that claims that he had concealed his marital status at the time of marriage, forged documents and signatures, removed Rekha Arya from directorship positions in several companies, issued death threats and used caste-based abusive language against her are baseless.
The petitioner had further claimed that after Rekha Arya became a minister, assets worth Rs 210 crores were allegedly accumulated illegally and that he had sought a high-level inquiry into the matter. According to the petition, the criminal case was subsequently lodged against him as a consequence of raising those allegations. On these grounds, Sahu requested the court to stay his arrest and quash the FIR.
It may be recalled that the dispute came into the public domain on 15 October when Rekha Arya, during a Facebook Live broadcast, broke down while alleging mental harassment, physical assault and threats to her life and the safety of her children. She levelled allegations against her husband and also submitted a complaint to the police. Following the registration of the case, Sahu released a video rejecting all the allegations against him and, in turn, accused the minister of corruption and illegally acquiring assets worth Rs 210 crore.
The case is currently being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Rekha Arya has already recorded her statement before the SIT and has been questioned as part of the inquiry. Meanwhile, the SIT has been conducting raids at various locations in an effort to trace and arrest Sahu. The investigation into the allegations and counter-allegations is currently underway.
