NAMING BADAL, SAINI IN FIR LEGALLY TENABLE, SAYS PHOOLKA

CHANDIGARH: After serving an ultimatum to five Punjab ministers to get an FIR registered against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and retired DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in Kotkapura police firing by September 15 or quit, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader HS Phoolka on Saturday challenged them for an open debate on whether it was legally tenable or not.

Addressing a press conference here, Phoolka said the joint statement of Punjab cabinet ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Charanjit Singh Channi, Manpreet Singh Badal and Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa that it would be an interference in course of justice and legally untenable was misleading.

Phoolka said it was well within the powers of the Punjab government to book both Badal and Saini. He also said chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has himself admitted in an interview that the two police firing incidents at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan have not gone to the CBI.

“Only the main sacrilege incidents at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala have been sent to the central agency. The government is not required to recall these two incidents from CBI where Saini and Badal are accused. A commission of inquiry can only make recommendations. It is up to the government to accept them. So it becomes imperative on the part of the government to act on the recommendations by registering the FIR first. So far only junior rank officers have been named. Why is the government delaying naming those who took decision to fire,” he said.

The Congress ministers had dismissed Phoolka’s ultimatum as a “gimmick to derive political mileage”.