Sangrur, February 5: A day after allegations by gangster Ravi Deol that a leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal “pushed” him into crime and his men “exploited girls”, SAD secretary general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa lashed out at Congress leaders with the claim that Ravi was being “used” to sully his image.
The Rajya Sabha member said Congress leaders Rahul Inder Sidhu, son of former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, and Harman Bajwa, husband of Daman Thind Bajwa, vice-president the state youth Congress, have relations with Deol, who is in police remand till February 11. Bhattal was defeated in last year’s assembly polls by Dhindsa’s son and former finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa from Lehra Gaga in the district.
Specifically about Amanbir Singh Cherry, who has been named by Deol, Dhindsa said, “Cherry was never Parminder’s OSD (officer on special duty), but once he was my OSD 15 years ago. He is Parminder’s cousin. If he has done something wrong, he will face consequences, but the Congress people ahead of parliamentary elections (due next year) have conspired against us.”
He failed to give a reply to why Cherry’s name was written on foundation stones of development projects in the area as the “OSD” of Parminder Singh Dhindsa.
Hitting out further at Bhattal, he said, “If anyone wants to contest Parliament elections against me, she/he can contest but should not level such allegations. The matter should be probed by the CBI.”
“The police are also playing a biased role. Deol was left free during his court hearing to make statements to the media. The Congress leaders used to go to CIA (crime investigation agency) wing of police at Bahadur Singh Wala village to guide Ravi. One can check the CCTV camera footage of the CIA staff premises,” he added.
Deol had also named a government employee, Manoj Kumar Manu, and claimed to have got Rs 12 lakh for not exposing their “misdeeds”. Both Cherry and Manu have already denied the allegations.
Bhattal and Bajwa too refuted the allegations. “I don’t believe in such poor type of politics, but Dhindsa does. However my son is ill for a long time and hardly goes outside the house. The Dhindsas should face allegations and reply honestly. They booked hundreds of innocent youths under false cases in Sunam (Parminder’s constituency before last year’s polls) during the SAD-BJP regime,” Bhattal said. Bajwa said, “There is no role of mine in Ravi’s surrender and I never visited the CIA staff.”
Meanwhile, senior superintendent of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the cops are “working professionally, without the influence of political leaders”. Ravicharan Singh alias Ravi Deol, a gangster named in the Bhola drug case, had surrendered before a local court on January 30. He had been declared a proclaimed offender (PO) in 2007 and named in the multi-crore drug case in 2013.
(Except for the headline, news has been sourced from Hindustan Times)
