AAP removes Ramdas as Lokpal, Bhushan from disciplinary panel

The new Lokpal panel comprises former IPS officers N Dilip Kumar and Rakesh Sinha and educationist S P Verma

The Aam Aadmi Party today removed party's internal Lokpal Admiral L Ramdas and Prashant Bhushan as the chief of National Disciplinary Committee, a day after the latter and senior leader Yogendra Yadav were expelled from the National Executive (NE).

At an "emergency" NE meeting here, the party removed former navy chief Ramdas from the internal Lokpal and set up a new Lokpal panel, comprising former IPS officers N Dilip Kumar and Rakesh Sinha and educationist S P Verma.

"All these people have given their consent to be part of the party's Lokpal panel," party's national secretary Pankaj Gupta said.

The AAP National Executive, while sacking Bhushan from the disciplinary committee, decided to replace him by a three -member panel headed by Dinesh Waghela. The other members are Arvind Kejriwal loyalist Ashish Khetan and national secretary Pankaj Gupta.

The removal of Ramdas came a day after he was sent an SMS asking him not to attend the National Council meeting to avoid "confrontation".

Miffed over the snub, he then wrote a letter to the Political Affairs Committee criticising the leadership.

Ramdas said he had come from his village in Maharashtra to attend the meet. However, he said he would not attend the meet to "honour" the party's request.