A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged that they were denied permission for poll events, with abusive language being used in the received reply, the Haryana government on Saturday suspended Brahm Prakash, sub-divisional magistrate-cum-assistant returning officer (ARO) of Kaithal.

The suspension order was issued by the chief secretary’s office.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Haryana unit state president Sushil Gupta had on Friday claimed that an application seeking permission for two events in Kaithal on April 7 was sought. But the authorities not just refused permission but also used abusive language in the reply to AAP.

Gupta, who is the INDIA bloc candidate from the Kurukshetra seat, said, “In one of the replies we received, it was mentioned that the permission has been rejected, while in the second one, abusive language was used in the column citing reasons for either approval or rejection.”

Gupta sought strict action in the matter from the state election commission. Following this, the SDM-cum-ARO had suspended five employees and said that AAP was free to go ahead with the programmes.

A statement from the office of the deputy commissioner-cum-returning officer said that the user ID of the ARO had been misused by unknown person/s to access the ENCORE portal (where the AAP had applied for the permission) to make derogatory posts.

Other than the suspension, the RO said that an FIR was also registered at cyber crime police station, Kaithal, and an inquiry initiated.