Lucknow: A day after Uttarakhand minister Rekha Arya shared video and audio clips accusing him of harassment and plotting to kill her, her husband, UP BJP leader Pappu Girdhari, has hit back alleging she had amassed assets worth Rs 210 crore through corruption.
Bareilly resident Girdhari has urged Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to order a probe into alleged corruption in Arya’s department and her assets.
In a video Friday, Girdhari said he would soon hold a press conference in Uttarakhand to disclose details of the minister’s allegedly illegally amassed assets. He claimed that Arya’s department had been indulging in corruption for the past 10 years and he had raised objections with her several times.
Girdhari also said he should be punished if his allegations were proved false. Claiming that he runs a substantial real estate business in Bareilly, he said he had no need to make money through illegal means.
He also claimed to have supported Arya’s political career for nearly 17 years, campaigning for her and seeking votes during elections. Relations between them, he further claimed, soured after he declined to travel to Uttarakhand to help her contest an election.
ThePrint reached out to both Arya and Girdhari for comment via phone. This report will be updated if and when their responses are received.
In the same video, Girdhari further accused Arya of allegedly carrying out extortion through his former manager. He claimed she, the manager, knew certain “secrets” linked to the minister and was subsequently sent to jail. He also dismissed an audio clip released by Arya as fake, alleging that it was AI-generated.
Seeking an impartial probe by an investigative agency, Girdhari appealed to Dhami. Referring to the chief minister as a friend and brother-like figure, he expressed confidence that an investigation would bring out the truth.
Girdhari challenged Arya to swear by ‘Golu Devta’, (a revered deity in Uttarakhand) and spell out whether he had ever wronged her. He also demanded that she withdraw her allegations against him.
Responding to questions surrounding his resignation from a company and its shareholding, Girdhari claimed that Arya also held a stake in the firm. He said an examination of the company’s documents would clarify the matter.
What did Rekha Arya allege in her video?
The allegations from Girdhari come after Arya filed a complaint against him at Dehradun’s Cantonment police station.
The minister accused him of assault, harassment, using casteist slurs against her and threatening to kill her. Her complaint also cited an audio recording and alleged that it pointed to a conspiracy to murder her.
After an FIR was registered on her complaint, Arya shared a video and an audio clip purportedly linked to her husband, on Facebook. She said listening to the recording had prompted her to approach the police, adding that she took the decision keeping the safety of her children in mind.
Sources close to Arya said the minister’s health deteriorated following the developments and that she had been admitted in a hospital.
In a message addressed to women, Arya urged them not to remain silent about domestic violence and harassment. “Whether a woman is ordinary or influential, she must neither endure domestic abuse nor remain silent about it. She must speak out,” she said.
Girdhari, a controversial past
Girdhari Lal Sahu, also known as Pappu Girdhari, is a resident of Bareilly and served as an independent municipal councillor there in 1990. Girdhari never won any elections after that but was active in organisational activities there. Sources in the BJP’s Bareilly unit told ThePrint that Rekha Arya and Girdhari got married in July 2004. It was Girdhari Lal’s second marriage, which Arya also mentioned in her complaint.
According to BJP sources, Girdhari met Arya when he visited Uttarakhand for business-related work. The two subsequently got married.
Girdhari was named as an accused in the 1990 murder case of a Jain couple in Bareilly.
Rekha Arya began her political career after marrying Girdhari. She is a three-term MLA from the Someshwar assembly constituency in Almora district, which is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. She represents the BJP and is currently a Cabinet minister in the Uttarakhand government.
In September 2024, Rekha Arya filed a complaint against a woman identified as Kalpana Mishra and another person, claiming that they were using a vehicle bearing the Uttarakhand government’s board and red and blue beacons. She alleged that Kalpana had used Girdhari’s name and his Bareilly residential address on her Aadhaar card and passport. The complaint also alleged theft of Rs 7 lakh and a gold-studded rudraksha mala. Kalpana had identified herself as a manager at Girdhari’s company, although reports of an alleged affair between the two had circulated in Bareilly and Dehradun.
In January this year, an alleged statement by Girdhari went viral in which he purportedly claimed that girls were available for Rs 20,000-25,000 for marriage in Bihar, sparking a controversy.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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