Senior Congress leader Sunil Jakhar on Friday submited a memorandum to the State Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh, on the alleged election related meeting of a murder accused Shiv lal Doda with several Akali Dal workers in the Fazilka Jail claiming that the Badal Government was still influencing the probe into the incident and was soft peddling the case.
Jakhar said the police were trying to save the culprits by distorting facts and were lying that the meeting was held in the superintendent’s office, he added.
He said he had requested the CEO to send a team to ascertain how many people could fit in the superintendent’s office, and added he was sure not more than six could be accommodated, while the total number of people caught attending the meeting were more than two dozen.
Demanding addition of charges under various sections in the case, Jakhar said the jail was nothing but an extension of Sukhbir Singh Badal’s Sukhvillas, with an entry charge of `3.25 lakh (the amount seized from the prison) whereas Sukhvillas charge `5 lakh for a night.
In its memorandum, the Congress has demanded immediate dismissal of the Badal Government in the light of the Fazilka sub-jail incident and conduct of the Assembly elections under President’s Rule to prevent any interference or disturbance in the poll process, besides handing over of the investigation into the case to a central agency.
Jakhar complemented the CEO on successfully reining in the Akali-patronized goons, pointing out that the Badal government had failed to check the spread of goondaism in the state over the past 10 years.
In its memorandum, the Punjab Congress expressed the apprehension that the meeting in the jail premises was held to plan large-scale disruption during the coming elections.
In the memorandum, the PPCC leaders said the incident assumes even more significance in the light of the Nabha jail break, where five gangsters had escaped from the high-security prison and not one had been rearrested.
later, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh declared that he would expose and punish the Badals in the Nabha jail break case and the Fazilka sub-jail episode.
Addressing a press conference here, Captain Amarinder said the Fazilka incident had exposed the nexus between the Badals and the criminals in the state, which was in the grip of total lawlessness, with as many as 52 armed gangs on the loose, as per the DGP’s own admission.