Khaira demands transfer of cases against Capt to CBI
You ( Khaira) used to say that cases against Captain Amarinder Singh were politically motivated and registered out of vendetta. How come now you started believing these to be genuine?
CHANDIGARH:Leader of opposition in Punjab assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Wednesday urged Captain Amarinder Singh to either quit the post of chief minister or hand over investigation into cases pertaining to Amritsar Improvement Trust and Ludhiana City Centre to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for trial outside the state.
Khaira alleged that a free and fair trial was not possible if Amarinder continued to be the chief minister cum home minister controlling the prosecution as well as the vigilance arm of the state.
“If the chief minister ignores the demand, we will hold a protest outside his official residence on September 4,” he told reporters here.
He was accompanied by party MLAs Manjit Singh, Amarjit Singh and Kultar Singh Sandhwan, besides spokesman Harjit Singh Bains.
A Mohali court last week returned the state vigilance bureau’s cancellation report in the Amritsar Improvement Trust land scam, in which the chief minister Amarinder Singh is among the accused, directing the agency to further investigate the case.
The vigilance bureau had also recently given a clean chit to Amarinder and other accused in the Ludhiana City Centre scam and the next hearing is on September 2.
Khaira, who is a member of legislative assembly (MLA) from Bholath assembly constituency, accused the Badals and Amarinder of playing games by first arm-twisting each other and then settling matters with each other.
“The game of witch-hunt and compromise has been going on since 2002. They register cases against each other, but then do nothing and the cases fall flat. Such kind of games must stop immediately for the betterment of the state,” he said.
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The Congress responded to the AAP leader’s charges with power and irrigation minister Rana Gurjit Singh lashing out at him for his “political opportunism and cheap publicity gimmicks” of questioning the due legal process.
The minister said Khaira was suffering from selective amnesia as not very long ago he was singing paeans to Amarinder to the extent of describing him as a “saint statesman”.
“You used to say that cases against Captain Amarinder Singh were politically motivated and registered out of vendetta. How come now you started believing these to be genuine?” he asked Khaira.