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Gokul Setia’s College Photos with Gangster Goldy Brar Go Viral After Joining Congress

Within days of Gokul Setia, grandson of former Haryana Cabinet Minister Lachhman Das Arora, joining the Congress party in New Delhi, some old college photos of him with notorious gangster Goldy Brar surfaced on social media and caused ripples in Sirsa. The photos of the two, taken during their university days at Panjab University, Chandigarh, show Setia with Brar, who has since then turned out to be a daredevil criminal.

Setia promptly took to the social networking sites and blamed his rival Sirsa MLA Gopal Kanda for planning the photo leak. He says Kanda’s TV channel made a scoop of these decade-old images showing persons who, since then, have pursued diverse routes—some became IAS officers, others went abroad, and a few took to crime. Setia asked how these old associations have anything to do with his political aspirations today.

Setia also alleged that he had been receiving extortion threats from a rival gang operated by Goldy Brar and accused the associates of Kanda of complicity. He pleaded that the release of the photographs was part of the conspiracy to defame him.

To counter this negative publicity, Setia had shared a decades-old picture showing himself, Goldy Brar, and other students with former CM Manohar Lal Khattar. “Why should he be held responsible for the decisions taken by his classmates from school days?” he said.

Mr. Setia sought to know why these pictures were not shown during the election campaign in 2019 and accused his opponents of targeting him for his recent decision to join the Congress. He dared Kanda to take part in the coming election, which, he claimed, the people of Sirsa would ensure his defeat decisively.

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Kanda, however, dubbed the claims of Setia as false and suspiciously pointed fingers at a local Congress leader trying to get a party ticket behind the release of the photos. “I have not resorted to such tactics and ask to be judged on my work in terms of development in Sirsa,” Kanda said. He attacked Setia for making what he termed as “false” accusations and said he was confident that the Congress would remain in third place as it had in previous contests. Kanda concluded, saying the people of Sirsa have always supported his efforts for development.