Chandigarh, April 27, 2021
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema said that Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s government was doing exactly what the Badals wanted in the 2015 sacrilege case. Lashing out at Captain Amarinder Singh during a press conference convened at the party headquarters here on Tuesday, Cheema said that Captain had been saving the Badals since the beginning and now to avoid the matter again, the Captain government had decided to constitute a new special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case. “Captain does not want the culprits and the perpetrators of desecration and firing cases to be punished and the victims get justice,” he added.
Cheema said that instead of appealing to the double bench of the High Court, the Captain government immediately announced the formation of a new SIT as per the decision of the single bench. “This shows that in order to save the Badal family, the Captain government deliberately weakened the case in the High Court, due to which the SIT report was quashed,” he said. Cheema said, in 2016, the then Home Minister of Punjab, Sukhbir Singh Badal himself had withdrawn the City Centre scam and Improvement Trust case of Captain Amarinder Singh. He said that now Captain was washing away the allegations levelled on the Badal family when it came to sacrilege and police firing cases. “To save the Badals, the Captain government again and again set up inquiry commissions and special investigation teams so that the case could be hung and delayed.
Reacting to the resignations of Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, Cheema said that now the people of Punjab have come to know that Captain Amarinder Singh is in collusion with the Badals and is protecting them. “That is why Jakhar and Randhawa are doing the drama,” he added. Cheema said that instead of doing drama, the Congress leaders should give justice to the people in the desecration case. He said that after the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party government in 2022, the matter will be investigated again and the culprits will be punished.
