With the Delhi Assembly elections just days away, the Delhi police made a significant seizure involving a car marked with “Punjab Sarkar” and containing multiple bottles of liquor and a large sum of cash. The vehicle was found near Punjab Bhavan and also had several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) pamphlets inside. In response, the Punjab government has issued a statement clarifying that the car’s registration number is “forged and fake,” and it does not belong to any Punjab government employee.
The incident occurred Wednesday night, when the Tilak Marg police station received a tip-off about a suspicious vehicle with a “PB” registration number parked near Punjab Bhavan. Upon investigating, the police discovered AAP pamphlets, liquor bottles, and cash worth lakhs inside the car. Legal action is being pursued at the Tilak Marg police station, according to the Delhi police.
BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal seized the opportunity to attack the AAP, accusing the party of corruption. He stated, “This incident has exposed the ugly side of AAP, showing how they have misled the public of Delhi with their claims of fighting for the common man… Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP government is rooted in corruption, scams, and lies. A change is coming to Delhi, and a BJP government will take over.”
In contrast, AAP national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar dismissed the allegations as “hilarious,” asserting that the car’s owner is from Maharashtra, not Delhi, and the vehicle was wrongly associated with the Punjab government. She also stated that the Punjab government had already clarified that no car with that number plate belonged to them. “The car was a Ford EcoSport with a registration number of PB35AE1342, but the vehicle the police apprehended was a Hyundai Creta,” Kakkar explained.
The Punjab government further clarified that the car was registered under the name of Maj. Anubhav Shivpuri, who was previously stationed at the Army Dental College in Pathankot and is a resident of Khadki, Maharashtra. The government confirmed that the registration plate displayed in the video was not a legitimate High Security Registration Plate (HSRP), making it easy to forge. “We have checked our records and found no link to the Punjab government. This vehicle is not owned or hired by the Punjab government,” the statement emphasized.
The Delhi Assembly elections will take place on February 5, with vote counting scheduled for February 8. The race is a tight one between AAP, BJP, and Congress, each party targeting the other over a range of issues in the capital.