Sunder Sham Arora (born 15 June 1958) is an Indian politician and a member of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

(INC). In 2017, he was elected as the member of the

Punjab Legislative Assembly The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the state of Punjab (India), Punjab in India. The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 M ...

from

Hoshiarpur Hoshiarpur () is a city and a Municipal corporations in India, municipal corporation in Hoshiarpur district in the Doaba region of the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. It was founded, according to tradition, during the early part of the ...

constituency from 2017 to 2022. He was arrested by vigilance allegedly for corruption cases, however the

Punjab and Haryana High Court Punjab and Haryana High Court is the common High Court for the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh based in Chandigarh, India. Sanctioned strength of Judges of this High Court is 85 consisting of 64 Pe ...

quashed the FIR against him, criticizing the Vigilance Bureau for misusing its authority.

Early life and education

Sunder Sham Arora was born on 15 June 1958.

Political career

Arora began his political career with the

. He contested the 2017

elections as an INC candidate from the

constituency. In that election, he defeated Tikshan Sud of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP) by a margin of 11,233 votes, marking a significant win for the Congress in the region. During his tenure as an MLA, Arora was involved in legislative activities and was part of the state government led by the INC.

Allegations and controversies

In October 2022, Sunder Sham Arora was arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau for allegedly attempting to bribe officials in relation to ongoing corruption investigations against him. His arrest drew widespread media attention and was part of political vendetta. However, in January 2025, the

quashed the FIR against him, criticizing the Vigilance Bureau for misusing its authority and failing to follow due legal process. This marked a major legal relief for Arora, casting doubt on the credibility of the initial allegations.

References

Living people Punjab, India MLAs 2017–2022 1978 births People from Punjab, India Indian National Congress politicians from Punjab, India {{PunjabIN-INC-politician-stub