Uttarakhand min sacked over 'Paharis' remarks not new to controversies

Four-time BJP MLA Premchand Agarwal, who resigned as the Uttarakhand finance minister recently over his alleged anti-Pahari comments, has had a chequered past with many controversies surrounding him.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

The former minister was in the dock after he became speaker of the state assembly in 2017 and then a cabinet minister in 2022 in the Pushkar Singh Dhami government.

After taking over as the state finance minister, Agarwal made in-camera admission to allegations of illegal appointments in the state assembly secretariat when he was speaker from 2017 to 2022.

In 2022, his video claiming that no one can harm him went viral in social media without any action from party bosses.

Later, his successor and present assembly speaker Ritu Khanduri ordered a probe and constituted a committee headed by retired IAS officer D K Kotia to investigate the allegations.

Khanduri had to cancel 228 appointments made in the Uttarakhand assembly secretariat between 2016 and 2021 owing to the probe report submitted by the Kotia-led Committee.

Khanduri brought this matter to the knowledge of the Centre but in vain.