Channi govt trying hard to implicate Badals in sacrilege cases: Sukhbir
Addressing the media in Phagwara on Sunday, Sukhbir said chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who holds home portfolio, have been pressuring interim general of police Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota to implicate the Badal family in Bargari sacrilege and police firing cases
Ahead of the first-ever questioning of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in connection with the 2015 sacrilege incidents, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal has accused the Congress government of trying hard to falsely implicate his family in the said cases.
The special investigation team led by inspector general of police Surinderpal Singh Parmar probing the sacrilege cases will question Ram Rahim, who has been named as an accused in the sacrilege cases, at Rohtak’s Sunaria jail on Monday (November 8).
Addressing the media in Phagwara on Sunday, Sukhbir said chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who holds home portfolio, have been pressuring interim director general of police Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota to implicate the Badal family in Bargari sacrilege and police firing cases. Earlier, Sukhbir addressed public meetings in favour of SAD ally Bahujan Samaj Party’s state chief Jasvir Singh Garhi who has been named as the candidate from Phagwara.
“The new Congress government, too, is working on the same agenda even as officials have been replaced. I have specific information that DGP Sahota has been told to identify persons who can implicate the Badal family in the case and also told to get their false statements against Badals recorded in the near future so that the Congress government can play a drama in court,” Sukhbir, who is an MP from Ferozepur, said while issuing to warning to the police officers against any such attempts.
Asserting that Channi was following the line of his predecessor Capt Amarinder Singh, the SAD president said: “It seems that delivering justice to the Sikh Sangat is not the priority of the Congress government. The Congress party continues to play politics on the sensitive issue of sacrilege. It is due to this that the culprits are still at large and have not been convicted till now.”
When pointed out that did he see the government closing in on Badals in sacrilege cases, Sukhbir said Congress party and its leaders, including state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, were naming Badals for the last four-and-half years. “They even constituted justice Ranjit Singh Commission whose report didn’t write a single word against the Badals. Congress party is the author of Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege,” said Sukhbir.
On the ongoing row over appointments to some top offices since Channi took over as CM, Sukhbir said the appointment of advocate general, chief secretary and DGP is the prerogative of the chief minister and the party chief (Navjot Sidhu in this case) has no business to interfere.