Chandigarh, Oct 16 (PTI) A day after BJP's Sunder Sham Arora was held on bribery charges, the Congress on Sunday demanded the arrest of AAP leader and Punjab minister Fauja Singh Sarari over an audio clip in which he is purportedly "fixing a deal to extort money".

"The arrest of Arora by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in a corruption case is fine but what about Fauja Singh Sarari whose audio clip has already gone viral in which he was categorically heard fixing a deal to extort money," senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said in a statement.

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The state vigilance bureau had on Saturday night arrested Arora from Zirakpur in Mohali for allegedly offering a Rs 50 lakh bribe to the agency's assistant inspector general to settle ongoing inquiries against him.

Arora, who had joined the BJP in June, is facing inquiries in a disproportionate assets case and for alleged irregularities during his tenure as industries minister in the previous Congress government.

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The leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly, Bajwa, also said that "so what is holding back (chief minister) Bhagwant Mann from arresting Sarari and dropping him from the Cabinet as he did with former health minister Dr Vijay Kumar Singla".

Singla was sacked in May from the state Cabinet over graft charges and was arrested.

Opposition parties in Punjab have been demanding the Sarari's dismissal and arrest over the issue of the audio clip.

The clip of an alleged conversation between Sarari and his former close aide, discussing ways to trap some contractors involved in food grain transportation through some officials to "extort money" from them, had surfaced last month.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)