Amit Rattan Kotfatta is an Indian politician who is known for being elected as the MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party from the Bathinda Rural Assembly constituency in the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election. On 23 February 2023, the Bathinda Vigilance Bureau arrested him for his involvement in a bribery case.
Wiki/Biography
Amit Rattan Kotfatta was born on Thursday, 17 July 1980 (age 42 years; as of 2023) in Bathinda, Punjab. His zodiac sign is Cancer. He did his schooling at St. Joseph’s Convent Senior Secondary School, Bathinda. He pursued a Btech degree in mechanical engineering at Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College, Fatehgarh Sahib.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 8″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Amit’s father’s name is Babu Singh Rattan, who was a class 1 officer in the Income Tax department.
Amit Rattan Kotfatta’s father
Amit Rattan Kotfatta with his mother
Wife & Children
Amit is married to a 2007 police officer, Sanmeet Kaur, who is posted in Nagaland.
Amit Rattan Kotfatta’s wife
Religion/Religious Views
He follows Sikhism.
Amit Rattan Kotfatta’s Instagram post visiting a gurudwara
Address
He resides at H.No. 70, Kotfatta, W. No. 3, Tehsil & District Bathinda.
Political Career
Amit started his political career in 2016 when he joined Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). In 2017, he contested the legislative assembly elections from Bathinda Rural but could not win and lost to AAP Rupinder Kaur Ruby by a margin of 10,718 votes. In 2020, he was expelled from SAD on charges of cheating. In January 2022, he joined the Aam Aadmi Party as the candidate from Bathinda Rural. In the same year, he won the Punjab Legislative Assembly elections and became the MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party from the Bathinda Rural Assembly.
Controversy
In 2023, Amit was involved in a controversy when he was arrested by the Bathinda Vigilance Bureau in connection to a bribery case on 23 February 2023. Amit’s arrest happened one week after his close aide Rashim Garg was arrested in the same case on 16 February. He was arrested after the husband of the sarpanch of Ghudda village, Pritpal Kumar filed a police complaint against Garg and Amit for asking for a bribe of Rs. 4 Lakh to release Rs. 25 lakhs granted for the development works of Ghudda village. Garg was arrested by the Vigilance bureau officials when he was accepting Rs. 2,000 notes at a government-owned guest house, where Kotfatta was also present. Amit at that time denied having any link with Garg, but the complainant released audio on social media clip of a conversation between Kumar, Amit and Garg where Amit was asking for money from Kumar. Reportedly, Amit’s arrest was sanctioned by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. In a Twitter post, he said,
Bribery by anyone, in any way, will not be tolerated. Faith, love and expectations of the people of Punjab keep my spirit up. There will not be any mercy for those who “gobble up” people’s money. Law is equal for all.”
Assets/Properties
Movable Assets
- Bank Deposits: Rs. 6,94,282
- Motor Vehicles: Rs. 8,00,000
Immovable Assets
- Non-Agricultural Land: Rs. 99,60,000
- Commercial Buildings: Rs. 25,00,000
Note: The given estimates of movable and immovable assets are according to the year 2022. It excludes the assets owned by his wife and dependents (minor).
Net Worth
His net worth for the financial year 2022 is Rs. 2 Crores. It excludes the net worth of his wife and dependents (minors).
Facts/Trivia
- Amit uses the prefix ‘Engineer’ before his name on his social media pages.
- In 2020, many farmers from the Bathinda Rural constituency accused him of cheating on them, but no police case was filed against him. He was also accused of cheating his own party workers by promising to give them business opportunities but not fulfilling the promise. Therefore, he was expelled from SAD.
- In 2022, AAP announced him as a candidate of the party, but many founding members of the AAP in Punjab did not like the decision and even wrote a letter to Arvind Kejriwal to review the candidate.
- In 2022, when Amit was preparing for the election campaign the members of the Bharti Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan’s Sangat block sat in front of Amit’s house and protested against him for not giving money to youngsters who helped him in completing a survey in 2017.
- Later in 2022, Amit was also alleged of running a company that collected money from youngsters and not giving them jobs. A complaint was sent against him to the Bathinda inspector general of police. Amit claimed that all the accusations were wrong and there was no proof against him.
- However, he won the elections in 2022 and became the MLA from the Bathinda Rural constituency. After becoming the MLA, he talked about his aims and said,
My aim is to serve public selflessly and become a bridge between the government and people to get as many works of people done from the authorities. I will also work in the direction of eradicating corruption from the system.”