Arvind Kejriwal sacks his food minister Asim Ahmed Khan over corruption charge

NEW DELHI: Much before he faced the ignominy of becoming the first AAP minister to be removed by Arvind Kejriwal at a press conference for alleged corruption, Asim Ahmed was known more as a “giant killer” for having defeated five time MLA Shoaib Khan by an impressive vote margin in the last Delhi Assembly polls. The former Congressman trumped three other Muslim MLAs from AAP to become the government’s minority face, made cabinet minister, and was well regarded within party circles. "We had four MLAs. He (Asim) was considered the best among the choices at hand, so he was made minister. He was considered close to Aashutosh," said an AAP source.

The party member said, it was a disturbing fact to realise that Khan had been involved in these activities. "He seemed like a decent person. Khan comes from a relatively well-off family, which has its own business, so this was not expected of him," he said. When Khan joined the party from Congress, he was coming from an experience of having contested the municipal polls. He had not dabbled in politics beyond this association, and when he got ticket for his "good work for ten years" in Matia Mahal, there was no controversy.

AAP leader Aashutosh denied that the ex-minister was close to him, but conceded that Khan had been "working hard in the Matia Mahal (assembly) constituency in the parliament elections".

Hours after he was sacked, Khan told reporters, "This is a big conspiracy against us. I am going to expose it tomorrow (Saturday). I have resigned because the party asked me to."

On Friday evening, while announcing Khan’s sacking at live press conference, Kejriwal had said, he was acting on a complaint which alleged that Asim had accepted a bribe of `6 lakh to help a builder in Matia Mahal constituency. The complainant on Thursday had attached evidence of an one hour long audio recording of a phone call purportedly between the minister and a middleman for the builder.