The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has suspended the primary membership of former Delhi Minister Sandeep Kumar, who was sacked after a video showing him in an "objectionable position" with a woman emerged, a party leader said on Saturday.
"In a high-level meeting held on Saturday, the party suspended primary membership of Sandeep Kumar," AAP's Delhi Convenor Dilip Pandey told IANS.
A decision on terminating him from the party will be taken later, he added.
Meanwhile Delhi's deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that a probe was going on against Kumar as the matter is with a disciplinary committee.
"What Sandeep did is not acceptable. The matter has been given to a disciplinary committee and we (party) will follow the committee's decision," Sisodia told reporters.
The AAP on Wednesday sacked former Social Welfare and Women and Child Development Minister Sandeep Kumar after a video emerged showing him in an "objectionable position" with a woman.
On Thursday, Sandeep Kumar defended himself, saying he had resigned on his own and that he had been targeted because he was a Dalit.
When asked about party leader Ashutosh's remark about Kumar, Sisodia said: "What Ashutosh said was his own opinion."
AAP leader Ashutosh earlier in a blog had said, "Indian history is full of examples of our leaders and heroes who had lived with their desires beyond social boundaries."
"The video clearly establishes that both individuals (minister and the woman) knew each other and consented to sex in a private space away from the public glare. The question then is that if two consenting adults are physically involved with each other, is it a crime," Ashutosh has asked in his blog defending Kumar.
In a bid to rebut the charge and accusations from elsewhere, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said he was "very pained" by what Sandeep Kumar did, which led to his sacking on grounds of morality even as the dropped minister alleged a conspiracy against him because he was a Dalit.
In a video message, a pensive looking Kejriwal said he would prefer to die rather than deviate from the AAP's principles.
--IANS
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