After Punjab Police arrested Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in connection drugs case, Punjab Congress Committee (PCC) president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has said that it is Ahmed Shah Abdali’s rule in Punjab where we are not allowed to meet a MLA. “This is a very wrong thing to do. This is all vendetta politics. No case of any kind is made out. When we reached Jalalabad police station, they did not open the lock. Someone told me that the CIA staff had taken him (Sukhpal Singh Khaira) to Fazilka. We reached here but were not allowed to meet Khaira. SSP told us that there are orders from above,” Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said.
He further condemned the Punjab police and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and said that the Congress has not seen this kind of situation in Punjab. “We have never seen such a situation. We have seen many rules in Punjab where false cases have been filed against many people, but it has not happened that we are not allowed to meet an MLA. I strongly condemn the police and the Chief Minister,” the Punjab Congress president said.
“Congress is the only party which is fighting in Punjab, hence pressure is being put on us,” he added. Khaira was arrested in connection with an old case registered in 2015 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Earlier in 2015, there were two cases originated with the unearthing of a cross-border drug smuggling network in Fazilka, Punjab, leading to the seizure of heroin, gold biscuits, weapons, cartridges, and Pakistani SIM cards and the second of a fake passport racket being run in Delhi. As the trial went on, nine smugglers, including Gurdev Singh, Manjit Singh, Harbans Singh, and Subhash Chander, were sentenced in October 2017 in connection with the Fazilka case. As per the chargesheet, Khaira was closely associated with Gurdev Singh, the leader of the Fazilka drug smuggling racket, and is accused of having sheltered him.
The arrest of Sukhpal Khaira is expected to further dent the relations of AAP and the Congress which have come together to form the INDIA alliance at the centre. The state unit of the Congress has opposed any tie-up or seat-sharing arrangement with the AAP in Punjab.
