AAP MLA Sandeep Kumar denied all allegations against him saying a plot had been hatched against him. (Source: ANI/Twitter) AAP MLA Sandeep Kumar denied all allegations against him saying a plot had been hatched against him. (Source: ANI/Twitter)

Hours after being sacked as Delhi cabinet minister over objectionable video and photographs, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sandeep Kumar defended himself saying he was “paying a price for being a Dalit.” Speaking to news agency ANI, Kumar said, “I am from Valmiki community, that’s why this plot has been hatched against me.”

On Wednesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced the decision to sack Kumar after receiving an objectionable CD of the former minister. Adding that the AAP stood for “propriety in public life”, Kejriwal said that the minister was being sacked with immediate effect. Sources in the party suggested that the CD contained video and photographs that showed Kumar in a “compromising position” with a woman.

Kumar, however, denied the allegations on Thursday claiming the the video was fabricated. “I am not in that video. Investigation must be done about it. Even ABP says they can’t vouch for authenticity of tape. It is media trial,” said the 34-year-old MLA who was elected from Sultanpur Majra.

Adding that people always conspired to bring down Dalits, the former women and child development minister said, “Like Eklavya was pulled down,when people from our community rise, some plot is hatched to destroy us.” He also said that “plot was hatched” ever since he installed Dr. Ambedkar’s statue and it was happening because “he is poor and Dalit.”

Kumar is the third AAP minister to be sacked in 18 months of the Delhi government. Earlier, environment minister Asim Ahmed Khan was removed from the cabinet in October 2015 over allegations of corruption. In June 2015, the-then Law Minister Jitendra Singh Tomar resigned after he was arrested on the charge of possessing fake degrees.

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